China Guide
Sichuan and Chongqing
Yong Ling
Opening time: Daily 8.30am–5pm
Price: ¥20
Address: Northwest of the centre on Yongling Lu (#46 bus route)
Yong Ling is the tomb of Wang Jian, a member of the Imperial Guard under the Tang who broke away from the disintegrating dynasty and, in 907 AD, set himself up here as emperor of Shu. After Wang Jian's death in 918, his "fatuous and self-indulgent son" Wang Yan was unable to hold onto the kingdom, which the Tang empire reclaimed in 925. Tomb robbers stripped the site of artefacts centuries before it was excavated during the 1940s, but the brick-lined chambers retain Wang Jian's stone sarcophagus platform, richly carved with musicians and twelve very Central Asian-looking bodyguards, and a simply styled, placid statue.