Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum (zhongshanling) is located at the foot of the second peak of Mount Zijin (Purple Mountain) in Nanjing, China. Construction of the tomb started in January of 1926 and was finished in spring of 1929. The architect was Lu Yanzhi, who died shortly after it was finished.

It is said that far before Mr. Sun took office in 1912, the abbot of Lingu Monastery had recommended him that his place is good for fengshui, because it faces the plain and is backed up by green mountains as its protective screen. On March 31, 1912 Mr. Sun resigned as a political compromise for the sake of the union of the North China and the South China. One day of the early April, he went hunting with Hu Hanmin around the Piety Tomb of Ming Dynasty. They took a rest in the place where the Mausoleum is located now. Mr. Sun looked around and said "If possible I would like my countrymen to allow me to have this place to bury my coffin." Surely, the fengshui of the Zijing Mountain is not the basic reason for the location of Mr. Sun's mausoleum. The basic reason is that, he said on dying "After my death, you can bury me at the foot of the Zijin Mountain in Nanjing in memory of the Revolution of 1911, because Nanjing is where the temporary government was founded. "So although Mr. Sun stayed in Nanjing not a long time, it had a special meaning to him. Fundamentally speaking, the reason he chose Zijing Mountain as his permanent resting-place is to commemorate the revolution of 1911 and to encourage the revolutionaries.

Reclining on mountain slope, the majestic mausoleum blends the styles of traditional imperial tombs and modern architecture. Lying at the mountainside, the vault is more than 700 hundred meters away from the paifang on the square below, which is the entrance of the mausoleum. There is a three-tier stone stand on which a huge bronze ding, an ancient Chinese vessel symbolizing power, perches. To the north of the square, the paifang towers high. Beyond is the 480-meter-long and 50-meter-wide stairway which has 392 stairs, leading to the vault. On both sides, pine, cypress, and gingko trees guard the way. At the end of the stairway is a gate which is 16 meters high and 27 meters wide. The tri-arched marble gate is inscribed with four Chinese characters written by Dr. Sun, "Tian Xia Wei Gong" which means "What is under heaven is for all". Inside of the gate, there is a pavilion in which a 9-meter-high stele is set, which is a memorial monument set by the Kuomintang (KMT). A few stairs up is the sacrificial hall and the vault.

In front of the sacrificial hall there stands a pair of huabiao, ancient Chinese ornamental columns, which are 12.6 meters high. The sacrificial hall is actually a palace of 30 meters in length, 25 meters in width and 29 meters in height. In the center of the hall a 4.6-meter-high statue of Dr. Sun sits. The statue was sculptured out of Italian white marble. The ceiling of the hall features the flag of the Kuomintang. Biographical information on Dr. Sun is available to visitors in the hall. North of the hall lies the bell-shaped vault, wherein lies the sarcophagus of Dr. Sun.

Over the last three decades, Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum has witnessed enormous changes. The whole mausoleum and its memorial buildings have been extensively renovated several times. Tourists to Nanjing usually visit the mausoleum and pay their respects to Sun Yat-sen, the great revolutionist. Endowed with rolling hills, a vast sea-like forest, many sights and rich resources, the mausoleum is majestic and magnificent. With the unique and successful design, the mausoleum has been dubbed "the First Mausoleum in the History of Modern Architecture ".