The Eastern Mausoleum of the Qing ruling house has been listed as a
world cultural heritage. It is considered as the largest and most
complete royal mausoleum ever to exist in China so far.
During the last century, some tomb robbers destroyed the
cultural relics preserved there. Recently, the precious world
heritage suffered from mine exploitation activities. Since abundant
iron resources were discovered underground, many illegal mine
explorers recently have come to the Eastern Mausoleum to excavate
iron ores.
Recently, this reporter paid three visits to the Eastern
Mausoleum and found that the world cultural heritage site had
suffered great damage.
The Eastern Mausoleum is located in Malanyu County of Zunhua
City in Hebei. It has a history of 330 years. It is said that the
location of the tomb was chosen by Shunzhi Emperor in the Qing
Dynasty. Five emperors, 15 empresses and 141 imperial concubines in
the Qing Dynasty were buried there.
In 1961, the Eastern Mausoleum was selected as one of the first
batch national cultural preservation sites. In 2000, it was
selected as a world cultural heritage site.
During the last visit to the Eastern Mausoleum the reporter,
disguised as an iron ore dealer, found the mausoleum had suffered
from great damage. Mine explorers had destroyed all the plantation
in the eastern slope of Shashan, a location which is just 200
meters away from the Hui Mausoleum where Tongzhi Emperor and
Xiaozhe Empress were buried. The Shaoxi Mausoleum, where Xiaozhuang
Empress was buried, was also been destroyed by tomb raiders. In
less than 1,000 meters near the Shaoxi Mausoleum, miners had built
two pits. They had used explosives to explore the iron resources
there. As a result, the ground buildings nearby might have been
seriously damaged, the surface ground might have sunken and
underground water penetrated into the tomb.
To make things worse, both Hui and Shaoxi mausoleums have
remained intact. It is very probable that miners might invade into
the tomb to rob the treasures inside.
(Chinanews.cn June 4, 2007)
