Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb in Hong Kong

Do you know that there is a well preserved ancient tomb in Hong Kong?

I am talking about the Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb (李鄭屋漢墓), if you couldn’t guess it.

Lei Cheng Uk Estate is a residential area in Hong Kong. In 1955, when the government tried to construct resettlement buildings by leveling a hill, the tomb was discovered by accident. The excavation started under the supervision of Professor Frederick Sequier Drake and the help of a bunch of Chinese University Students. After two years of work, the tomb was finally open to the public for exhibition.

And it’s not just some normal tomb. Judging from the structure and the calligraphy on the wall, experts believed that the tomb was built in Eastern Han Dyansty (around AD25 to 225), which means the tomb is about 2000 years old! No one can be sure whose tomb is it, but some scholars believe that the tomb was built for some nobles or government officials. 58 historical artifacts were found, and at least 33 of them were at great condition: potteries, cooking utensils, bronze wares and the like. Too bad they didn’t find any skeletal remains… (Come on, what’s fun about an ancient tomb without corpses?)

I believe the museum is free to enter. However, you don’t actually get to wander inside the tomb. You can view the tomb’s inside through a huge glass panel, and that’s it. Understandable, it’s a declared monument after all. But there are still a lot to see in the exhibition hall, like the history of the tomb, the culture of Han’s people, photos of the excavation process and the artifact displays.

…No, there is no mummy inside.

Nope, no man-eating scarabs, no Golden Tablet of Pharaoh that grants life to wax statues either.

This is Hong Kong, not Egypt.

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