Rebuilding the past with paper

Together, they X-rayed the models to reveal hidden internal structures, and analyzed pigments, papers, and adhesives under microscopes.

They corrected a long-standing misidentification and proved that the Berlin model belonged to the 10th Qing emperor Tongzhi's Huiling Mausoleum. Previously, the model was considered to be the 11th Qing emperor Guangxu's Chongling Mausoleum.

Most remarkably, the German students built a full-scale physical replica of the Huiling underground palace tangyang with their own hands, carefully "drawing" each Chinese character on the yellow slips as if they were images.

All of this work — the scientific data, the corrected history, the handmade replica, the cross-cultural friendship — is now on display at the ongoing Dialogue Reproducing Inheritance — A Documentary Exhibition of the Collaborative Research on Tangyang Model Undertaken by Students from China and Germany, which runs at the Prince Kung's Palace Museum in Beijing until May 5.