Ming Xiaoling Museum

The Ming Xiaoling Museum is located in the Zhongshan Scenic Area of Xuanwu District, Nanjing City. It is a thematic exhibition hall dedicated to Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the World Cultural Heritage site of Ming Xiaoling, and the Ming culture of Nanjing.

The new museum’s exterior adopts the architectural style of the Jiangnan region during the Ming and Qing dynasties, with typical elements such as white walls, gray tiles, carved wooden doors, sloping roofs, horse head walls, and lattice windows. These features harmonize the overall architecture with the surrounding cultural relics of the Ming Xiaoling, such as the Great Golden Gate and the Square City, as well as the lush natural environment. This also coincides with the ‘unity of heaven and man’ construction concept of the Ming Xiaoling over 600 years ago.

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Ming Xiaoling is the joint tomb of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, and his empress, Ma Shi. Named after the empress’s posthumous title ‘Xiao Ci’, it is one of the largest imperial tombs in Nanjing and one of the ancient imperial tombs in China. As the foremost among the Ming tombs, Ming Xiaoling is majestic and represents the achievements of architectural and stone carving art in the early Ming Dynasty. It has directly influenced the layout of imperial tombs for more than 500 years during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The imperial tombs distributed in historical sequence in Beijing, Hubei, Liaoning, Hebei, and other places during the Ming and Qing dynasties were all constructed according to the regulations and patterns of the Ming Xiaoling in Nanjing, holding a special position in the history of Chinese imperial tombs, thus earning the reputation of ‘the first royal tomb of the Ming and Qing dynasties’.

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The museum is open all year round from Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00-17:00; closed all day on Mondays; and open on New Year’s Day, Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Labor Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and National Day, 09:00-17:00.

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