Qualla: Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery

Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gene Zhang from Beijing City, China, CC BY 2.0. The man who negotiated the deal had castrated himself at nineteen. Xin Xiuming, the last abbot of a Taoist temple on the western edge of Beijing, had served as a eunuch for the last emperor, Puyi. After the fall of the Qing dynasty, he retreated to this temple -- a retirement home for eunuchs -- and built it into a prosperous agricultural estate. When the communists arrived in the 1950s and decided his temple would become a cemetery for revolutionary martyrs, Abbot Xin did not resist. He negotiated.

Image: Gene Zhang from Beijing City, China | CC BY 2.0

Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery: The Eunuch's Temple

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0. The site's origins are unexpected for a communist shrine. The Babaoshan temple was first built to honor General Gang Bing, a Ming dynasty soldier who castrated himself as an act of obedience to the Yongle Emperor. The emperor designated the surrounding area as a final resting pla...

Image: N509FZ | CC BY-SA 4.0

Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery: A Shrewd Negotiation

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the new government decided to convert the temple into a cemetery, Xin Xiuming faced the kind of problem that has no good solution -- only less bad ones. He negotiated with Wu Han, the deputy mayor of Beijing, and secured terms that were remarkably favorable: the government w...

Image: N509FZ | CC BY-SA 4.0

Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery: Where Power Goes to Rest

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rolfmueller, CC BY-SA 3.0. The cemetery that replaced the temple became Beijing's most politically significant burial ground. Spanning 0.10 square kilometers on the western edge of the city's urban sprawl, it holds the remains of China's highest-ranking revolutionary figures, military leaders, and individu...

Image: Rolfmueller | CC BY-SA 3.0

Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery: The Living Politics of the Dead

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0. Burial at Babaoshan is not merely an honor -- it is a political statement. Who is admitted, and who is denied, reflects the current leadership's reading of history. In 2005, Israel Epstein, a Polish-born journalist who had spent decades in China, was cremated here. In January 201...

Image: N509FZ | CC BY-SA 4.0