Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum
Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Mausoleum is situated at the foot of the second peak of Mount Zijin in Nanjing, China. Construction of the tomb started in January 1926, and was finished in spring of 1929. The architect was Lu Yanzhi, who died shortly after it was finished.
On 27 April 2005, Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan, his wife, and other KMT members visited the Mausoleum. It was the first visit of KMT members to the site since 1949.
On 15 November 2006, a visit was made to the Mausoleum by Dr. Sun’s granddaughter, Sun Huiying, who was by then over eighty years old.
In May, 2008, Wu Po-hsiung became the first ruling KMT Chairman to visit the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum since 1949. There were concerns that the 392 steps leading to the tomb would be too taxing given Wu’s leg injuries.
On 12 February 2014, Wang Yu-chi became the first ROC government official in office to visit the site after the end of Chinese Civil War in 1949.
On 31 October 2016, KMT Chairperson Hung Hsiu-chu visited the mausoleum during her mainland trip for the Cross-strait Peace Development Forum.
Dr. Sun was born in Guangdong province of China on 12 November 1866, and died in 1925 in Beijing, China. On 23 April 1929, the Chinese government appointed He Yingqin to be in charge of laying Dr. Sun to rest. On 26 May, the coffin departed from Beijing, and on 28 May, it arrived in Nanjing. On 1 June, 1929, Dr. Sun was buried there. Sun, considered to be the “Father of Modern China” both in mainland China and in Taiwan, fought against the imperial Qing government and after the 1911 revolution ended the monarchy, and founded the Republic of China.
A committee decided to host a design competition in order to collect designs for the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. The committee put advertisements in the newspapers on 5 May, 1925, inviting architects and designers at home and abroad to send their designs. In exchange for a 10 yuan charge, the committee would provide the designer with 12 pictures of the site.
The design would have to adhere to guidelines. It had to be done in a traditional Chinese style that also evoked a modern design with special and memorial substance. Not only should it evoke the Chinese architectural spirit, but also add creativity. Designers were required to insure that the proposed construction costs within 300,000 yuan (the final cost exceeded 3,000,000 Yuan). Over 40 proposals were received.
On 20 September, 1925, the committee convened in Shanghai, and unanimously selected Lu Yanzhi’s proposal.
