The Prostitutes' Cemetery in the Rouge Valley Ancient Tomb Cluster

The Prostitutes' Cemetery in the Rouge Valley Ancient Tomb Cluster

The Prostitutes' Cemetery in the Rouge Valley Ancient Tomb Cluster is a cultural tourism attraction.

Deep within the vast forests and remote mountains lies a cemetery built exclusively for prostitutes during the late Qing Dynasty, commonly known as the "Prostitutes' Tomb."

Following the Rouge Valley stream northwest to the 719 kilometer marker on National Highway 209, you’ll find a fork in the road marked with a sign reading “Prostitutes’ Tomb.” Follow the directional sign down the forked path for over 400 meters to reach the burial site. The tourism authorities have built a traditional-style house here. In the courtyard, along the hillside, a wall has been erected, engraved with the “Prostitutes’ Fresco”: slender and graceful women from the southern regions of the Yangtze River, with flowing hair, looking up with longing — their expressions reflecting dreams of gold and lamenting tragic fates.

On the hillside stand slender and elegant Dahurian larch trees, dressed in black trunks, yellow bark, and green crowns. Their roots intertwine, branches lean close together, and when a gentle breeze blows, the pine needles sway, releasing a faint fragrance. Beneath the shade of the trees, soft humus spreads out across low-growing, verdant lingda seedlings that stretch endlessly, dotted with clusters of lingda berries—known as the “red beans of the north,” a name derived from the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei’s line “Red beans grow in the southern land.” Within the woods, using wooden planks, a fence has been reconstructed on the original site, following the original mortise-and-tenon joinery, enclosing an area approximately 350 meters in both length and width. Inside the uneven and rugged enclosure lie the haphazard mounds that mark the graves of the prostitutes. There are no tombstones, nor any names. “The depressions below hold the coffins,” so people tend to walk along the higher ground, wearing down a winding path over time. In the northeastern corner of the cemetery, two coffins have been pried open, spaced about two meters apart and nearly identical in size — roughly 40 centimeters wide and 180 centimeters long, resembling narrow wooden boxes. Scattered inside are the slender white bones of the prostitutes. The coffin wood is simple and thin, now decayed, discarded carelessly around the site. Only two prostitute graves have been disturbed, suggesting the grave robbers found nothing of value. Had the women been buried with jewels and gold, the robbers might have struck it rich — likely resulting in the entire burial ground being ransacked long ago. Thus, after more than a century, the site remains largely undisturbed.

In the 1880s, with the wave of the gold rush, numerous prostitutes from both China and abroad flocked to the Rouge Valley. In 1888, Li Jinyong arrived in the Rouge Valley to manage a gold mine and recruited a large number of prostitutes from cities in the south such as Shanghai and Hangzhou. At the time, there were about 30 brothels, quite sizable, including those with prostitutes from Japan, Russia, and other countries. Every day, after removing their makeup, the prostitutes would bathe, and the water flowing into Rouge Valley River would be covered with a layer of rouge, its fragrance drifting for miles — this is another legend behind the naming of the “Rouge Valley.” They were doted on by tens of thousands of miners, treated like stars. Among the mining officials, visiting brothels was considered fashionable, and some even took prostitutes as concubines. Translator Wei Zhao Kang funded the taking of a Japanese prostitute named Ayusang as his concubine. The prostitutes of the Rouge Valley brought a touch of gentleness to the harsh, bitter cold of Mohe, though many also died here from illness, which moved Li Jinyong. He allocated a piece of land as a cemetery to bury these women far from their hometowns and loved ones. Some died under unnatural circumstances as well. Two Russian merchants visited the “Hundred Flowers Brothel” and got into a fight with miner Liu Chuang and others over jealousy, leading to a brawl. Several women in the brothel tried to mediate but were struck dead by flying sticks from the Russian merchants. Once the superintendent investigated and clarified the cause, he severely punished the Russians and immediately decided to hold a grand funeral for the two prostitutes. Prostitutes from all the brothels came out in full force to send off their sisters, and almost all the miners stopped working to join the procession.

These extraordinary women, subjected to the judgment and praise of the world, accompanied the miners through the rise and fall of the Rouge Valley. They paid the ultimate price, their remains buried deep within the forested mountains. Though they have no incense burned in their honor, nor tomb inscriptions, they continue to draw the footsteps of many seekers.