Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery

Cemetery in Shijingshan District, Beijing

The Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery 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.

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 , 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. 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. 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.

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 (客车十三厂), 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 (客车四厂) 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.

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 (日本東京博善株式会社); 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.