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Zhaojun Tomb (Zhaojun Museum)
昭君博物院
A large grass-covered tumulus traditionally held to be the grave of Wang Zhaoyun, the Han-dynasty palace lady married to a Xiongnu ruler in 33 BC and remembered in China as a symbol of peace between the steppe and the farmland. The modern museum complex around it explains Han-Xiongnu relations well, and the mound itself gives a view over the plain.
The story
What makes this place special
The Zhaojun Tomb, known as the Green Mound, stands on the south bank of the Dahei River in the southern outskirts of Hohhot and is traditionally the burial place of Wang Zhaojun, the Han palace woman sent to marry the Xiongnu chanyu in the first century BC and the standing symbol in Chinese tradition of marriage alliance across the frontier. The present mound is artificial, rammed earth in an inverted-bucket shape, 33m high over a base of about 13,000 square metres. The name is explained by a story that in autumn, when the surrounding grass turned yellow, the grass on the mound alone stayed green. The site was repeatedly repaired from the 1960s onward and the Zhaojun Museum was established around it. A spirit way about 400m long runs to the mound with six pairs of stone figures, eight stelae of the late Qing and Republican periods stand beside the mound, and 37 modern inscribed poem tablets are set into the perimeter wall. The museum grounds also hold a 5D cinema, a Zhaojun hometown memorial hall, a hall on the Chinese tradition of marriage alliance, and a reconstructed chanyu's great tent.
What you’ll discover
A long processional avenue lined with stone figures leading to a large grass-covered earth mound you climb by a staircase to a pavilion on top, from which you look over flat farmland. Around it are modern exhibition buildings on Wang Zhaojun, on the politics of frontier marriage alliances through Chinese history, and a built replica of a Xiongnu ruler's tent, plus the stelae with Qing and twentieth-century inscriptions.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Treat the mound as a monument rather than an excavation. Whether Wang Zhaojun is buried here is not established; it is a traditional site and a very old place of commemoration, and the museum's displays are about the idea of her rather than about archaeology.
- The marriage-alliance gallery is more interesting than the tomb. It sets out two thousand years of Chinese states marrying women to frontier powers, which is unusual material and is passed over by visitors heading for the mound.
- Read the stelae beside the mound if you read any Chinese. The late Qing and Republican inscriptions show how each era used her story, and the 37 modern tablets continue the habit.
- Climb the mound for the view of the plain towards the Daqing mountains, which is the geographic point of the site: this is the edge of the steppe, which is why the frontier ran here.
- It is about 10km south of central Hohhot and takes 20 to 30 minutes by taxi, with little nearby, so plan it as a standalone two hours rather than a stop on a route.
When to come
Late afternoon in spring or autumn, for low light on the avenue and the mound. Summer is hot and exposed; the Hohhot winter leaves the whole site brown and windswept.
Getting around
Partly manageable. The spirit way, the exhibition halls and the grounds are flat and paved, so a wheelchair user can see the avenue, the stelae, the tent and the galleries. The mound itself is climbed by a long external staircase with no lift or ramp and no alternative route to the top. A bad knee can do the grounds and should judge the staircase on the day.
Worth knowing before you go
The site was free at last check after a long period of charging - worth re-confirming on the day, as Hohhot has switched several sites between free and ticketed.
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