Ding Dongling is Empress Dowager Cixi's mausoleum, and it makes a statement. The Long'en Hall — the main offering hall — is constructed from rare nanmu hardwood and covered inside with gilded decorations: gold-leaf dragons, painted ceilings, carved phoenixes, and walls of elaborate relief. Phoenix imagery appears throughout, symbolising female power. The contrast with the more austere mausoleums elsewhere in the complex is deliberate: Cixi spent decades accumulating the resources to build herself something that would outlast every criticism of her reign.
The underground burial chambers are also open to visitors and contain some of the most elaborate funerary objects in the complex. Cixi was interred in 1909 with jewels and ritual objects of extraordinary value — most of which were looted by the warlord Sun Dianying in 1928. What remains is still extensive, and the displays include a reconstruction of the burial goods based on contemporary records.
Empress Dowager Ci'an, who held power jointly with Cixi for a period, is buried in the companion mausoleum (Pu Dongling) immediately to the east, which is noticeably less elaborate — a contrast that was surely not accidental.