On the Qiaoshan Hill and by the Jushui River, and among the ancient lush and green cypresses lies the Yellow Emperor Mausoelum, 150 kilometers away from Xi'an. The Yellow Emperor, whose family name was Gong sun and personal name Xuanyuan, was widely revered as the ancestor of the Chinese Nation. He was said to have unified all the tribes in the Yellow River basin. According to legend, he rode a dragon and ascended to heaven when he had lived to a hundred years old.

His descendant built the mausoleum in order to pay homage to him. Dr.Sun Yat-sen wrote of him: “Since the founding of China five thousand years ago, the name of Xuanyuan has echoed through the centuries. The world is eternally grateful to the inventor of the chariot and of the compass, the man who dispelled evil and brought light and culture to the earth.”
The mound of the Yellow Emperor Mausoleum is 3.6 meters high and 48 meters in perimeter. In front of the tomb stands a stone tablet with an inscription of four Chinese characters meaning the “Dragon Rider at Mount Qiaoshan”. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty built the “Han Wu praying platform” in front of the mausoleum to pay homage to the Yellow Emperor. At the foot of the mountain lies the Xuanyuan Temple built during the Tang Dynasty.

Ancient cypresses around the temple are believed to “have been planted by the Yellow Emperor himself”. The largest one is 19 meters tall, ten meters in circumference at the bottom, and six meters in circumference in the middle. It would take more than seven people to encircle the tree with outstretched arms. Some foreign scholars call it “father of world cypress.”

The temple also has more than forty stone tablets. Atone sculpture bearing the image of the Yellow Emperor is enshrined in the grand hall. Above the door of the magnificent main hall is a large horizontal board with a four-character inscription: “Ren Wen Chu Zu” (Founder of the Human Civilization).

Since the ancient times, there have been the saying of eight sceneries in the area of the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, and they are Night Moon over Qiaoshan Mountain, Autumn Wind Blows Ju River, Yellow Flowers in Yellow Valley, North Rock in Clean Snow, Dawn Fog at Dragon Bay, Spring Fog at Phoenix Peak, Divine Estrade of Emperor Wudi, and Xuan Yuan Old Temple. The Xuan Yuan temple is the best sight in the Qiaoshan Mountain scenic area.

On the Qingming(Tomb-sweeping Day) Festival and the Double Ninth Day, when the Chinese honor their dead, grand ceremonies are held to remember the common ancestor of the Chinese Nation. The mausoleum has become a sacred place for compatriots from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and overseas Chinese.