Cemetery in Shijingshan District, Beijing
The
Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery
(
Chinese
:
八?山革命公墓
) is
Beijing
's main resting place for the highest-ranking revolutionary heroes, high government officials and, in recent years, individuals deemed of major importance due to their contributions to society. In Chinese,
Babaoshan
literally means "The Eight-Treasure Mountains". The cemetery is located in
Babaoshan Subdistrict
,
Shijingshan District
, in western Beijing
Municipality
.
History
[
edit
]
Buildings inside the cemetery
Buildings inside the cemetery
The Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, with an area of 0.10 square kilometres and located in the western frontiers of Beijing's massive
urban sprawl
, was first built as a temple in honor of General
Gang Bing
, a
Ming dynasty
soldier who castrated himself as an act of obedience for the
Yongle Emperor
. The emperor designated the area surrounding the temple as the final resting place of concubines and eunuchs. Over time, the
Taoist
temple became a place for retired eunuchs only, which it remained for five centuries of imperial rule until it was converted to honor the elite of the Chinese Communist Party five decades ago. The official name of the temple was (
Chinese
:
褒
忠
?
?
祠
;
pinyin
:
b?o zh?ng hu guo ci
), roughly translating into Temple of Loyalty and Defender of the Nation.
The last abbot of the temple was Xin Xiuming (信修明), who was married and had two children. Due to the harsh living conditions of rural China, Xin Xiuming, when he was 19 and against the strong oppositions of his family members, castrated himself and became a eunuch for
Puyi
. After the establishment of
Republic of China
, Xin Xiuming left the
Forbidden City
and went to live in the Temple of Loyalty to the Nation, and by 1930, he had risen to the top as the abbot of the
Taoist
temple. Under Abbot Xin's management, the
Taoist
temple prospered as an agricultural business establishment: 52 Chinese acres of land that the temple owned were farmed by the eunuchs themselves, another 157 Chinese acres of land the temple owned were farmed jointly by eunuchs and tenant farmers, and the remaining 269 Chinese acres of land the temple owned were rented out to be farmed by tenant farmers. When the communists decided to turn the temple into a cemetery, Abbot Xin Xiuming was able to negotiate with the then deputy mayor of
Beijing
, Mr.
Wu Han
a good deal for the eunuchs: the government would pay the full price for all assets of the temple, and pay each eunuch a monthly pension until his death. The abbot also convinced the government to arrange vehicles to help relocate eunuchs to two new locations. Those older eunuchs were relocated to a
Taoist
temple for eunuchs at Colored Glazed River (Liulihe), and the rest were located to another
Taoist
temple for eunuchs at Westward Tilted Street (Xixiejie).
Israel Epstein
, a
Communist
Jew
who immigrated to China, was honored and cremated at Babaoshan in 2005.
[1]
[2]
In January 2010, eight individuals (four UN peacekeepers and four Chinese delegates) who were killed in the
2010 Haiti earthquake
were also laid to rest at Babaoshan as martyrs.
[3]
On December 5, 2022, former
Chinese president
and
Paramount Leader
from 1989 to 2002
Jiang Zemin
was cremated at the crematorium in preparation for his
state funeral.
[4]
Establishment
[
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]
Martyrs' cemetery in Babaoshan
After the land was purchased, the legal proceeding followed: Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery traces its legal/judicial root to the Temporary Legislation on the Burial at Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery (革命烈士公墓安葬?行?定) issued by
Beijing
Municipal Government in August 1951. After numerous reviews, the modified version was renamed to Temporary Legislation on Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery (革命公墓?行?定) and made into law on Executive order #270 on December 20, 1951. Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery was built according to the regulations described in this law.
One of the most important piece of legislation is the third section, where it dictates the different level of treatment of late cadres at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, which has since become the standard for the rest of cemeteries in China for decades.
There are three levels for the area and the location of the graves depending on the ranks of the late cadres:
One of the two portions of the
1st District
is the region in front of the temple. This is the region for cadres at county level and regimental officers. The area of individual grave can not exceed
12 ft (4 m)
by
6 ft (2 m)
.
The other portion of the
1st District
is the region to the east of the temple. This is the region for cadres at prefecture level and divisional officers. The area of individual grave can not exceed
12 ft (4 m)
by
12 ft (4 m)
.
The
2nd District
is located to the west of the temple. This is the region for cadres at provincial level and army/corps level officers. Since this category includes several levels of rank, the maximum size of each grave varies: those who held lower ranks can not exceed 18 feet (5.5 m) square, and those of higher rank can not exceed 24 feet (7.3 m) square.
The
3rd District
is located to the north of the temple, and it is designated those had special place in the revolution, and those served in the central government. The area of the grave would be determined individually by the government.
The mourning hall with several rooms where cinerary caskets are placed follows a similar rule: room number one has all of the cinerary caskets of deceased cadres / officers qualified to be buried in the graves in the
1st
,
2nd
, and
3rd
Districts, and cinerary caskets of all other deceased would be placed in other rooms. Arrangement of the cinerary caskets also follows the similar rule: the front wall of room number one is reserved for the cinerary caskets of deceased cadres of the central government, while side walls of room number one are reserved for the deceased cadres who had no positions in the central government, but held ranks enough to have their cinerary caskets to be placed in room number one. Even for the same wall, there are similar rules for the levels at which the cinerary caskets are placed: the higher the ranks the deceased held, the higher the cinerary casket is placed.
Hearse
[
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]
For the first few years, there was no hearse for Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery; vehicles were temporarily drafted from other governmental establishments or hired from private businesses when needed. In 1956, three vehicles were assigned to Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery: a Polish truck, a World War II Japanese
Toyota
truck nicknamed "Potato vehicle" by the workers due to its round nose, and an American Jeep towing a trailer in which a body was placed.
In 1962, more than a dozen
GAZ-63
trucks were reassigned to Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery at once, from the 13th Plant of Passenger Coaches (客?十三?), but the original three vehicles were not completely retired until the
Cultural Revolution
had started. When the
Field Marshal
Chen Yi
died in February 1972, the Chinese government finally realized that trucks acting as hearses was inadequate for special occasions such as funerals of important governmental figures. An emergency order was given to the 4th Plant of Passenger Coaches (客?四?) to produce a true hearse, and after consulting with workers at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, a purpose-built hearse was pressed into service just a few months after the order was given. The hearse was based on the chassis of the Liberation Truck, and thus also used the same Liberation brand.
Crematorium
[
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]
The crematorium at Babaoshan
From the start, the
crematorium
used at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery was a Type 82B, a Chinese copy of a 1940s-era Czech crematorium, which could only be operated manually, resulting in very slow preparation times. Furthermore, it took a huge effort to clean the crematorium. Whenever a high-ranking official's funeral took place, ordinary citizens had to wait and their original schedules were disrupted, resulting in many complaints from the public.
To solve the problem, in 1984, China imported two new crematoria from a Japanese firm in
Tokyo
(日本東京博善株式?社); one went to
Shenyang
, and the other went to Babaoshan. The Japanese crematorium was highly automated but also could be operated manually when desired. In addition, the pollution generated during cremation was next to nothing. However, such environmental friendly process came at a price: the cremation process itself took much longer and consumed more fuel. Nonetheless, due to advantages such as the ease of cleaning and automation, all activities other than the cremation itself were greatly reduced, resulting in much higher efficiency. The higher efficiency in turn helped to solve the schedule conflicts and reduced complaints. After two months of installation and testing, the Japanese crematorium formally went into service and replaced the obsolete Type 82B crematorium, and it remains in service until this day, specifically used to cremate high-ranking governmental officials.
Although the Japanese crematorium has been adequate, the ever increasing needs required a new crematorium, and a new domestic crematorium that was fully computerized was added to the inventory. The new crematorium further improved environmental standards and efficiency, and consumes less fuel in comparison to the Japanese crematorium, while the cremation process was shorter. This newest addition was produced by
Shougang
, and is mainly used for common citizens.
Notable people buried at Babaoshan
[
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]
Graves at the cemetery.
The ashes of
Emperor Puyi
, initially deposited at Babaoshan upon his death in 1967, were transferred in April 1996 to the Hualong Imperial Cemetery (??皇家陵?) near the
Western Qing tombs
outside Beijing, at the initiative of Puyi's widow
Li Shuxian
.
[5]
The remains of Puyi's brother Prince
Pujie
(溥杰), however, still rest at Babaoshan Cemetery.
[
citation needed
]
See also
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Notes
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External links
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39°54′28″N
116°14′09″E
/
39.90778°N 116.23583°E
/
39.90778; 116.23583