Dragon tiles unlock Qinshihuang's eastern dreams

A pottery roof tile end decorated with a kui dragon motif has become a highlight for visitors at the Qingdao West Coast Museum in Qingdao West Coast New Area, Shandong province.

Featuring a high-relief, symmetrically designed dragon pattern, symbolizing power and imperial authority, the artifact was unearthed at the Langyatai archaeological site, a headland overlooking the Yellow Sea.

"Similar kui dragon tile ends have been found at sites directly associated with Qin imperial construction, including the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor," says Lyu Kai, director of the Warring States, Qin and Han dynasties research section at the Shandong Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and leader of the Langyatai excavation.

"Those examples are typically about 50 centimeters in diameter. However, the largest specimen discovered at Langyatai reaches 80 centimeters," Lyu says.

"The kui dragon tile end is a standard indicator of the highest rank of Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) architecture. Its presence at Langyatai confirms that this structure was a state project commissioned by the first emperor (Qinshihuang)," he adds.

Hollow dragon-patterned step bricks unearthed at the site further underscore the building's elite status, he adds.

After seven years of systematic excavation, Langyatai has yielded major discoveries that provide tangible evidence for historical accounts of the first emperor's eastern tour and the construction of the Langyatai complex. The site was recently named one of China's top 10 archaeological discoveries of 2025.

Lyu says the excavations corroborate a record in the epic Shi Ji (Records of the Grand Historian) that the emperor relocated 30,000 households to build Langyatai.

At the summit of a hill rising about 184 meters, archaeologists uncovered a rammed-earth foundation covering 45,000 square meters — an immense scale for its time. Remains of rooms, corridors, gate structures and a sophisticated drainage network were found across the platform.

At the foot of the hill, the team excavated a Qin Dynasty kiln built specifically to produce construction materials for the complex, as well as a courtyard compound linked to the summit by a roadway.

"This suggests that Langyatai was not simply a platform on a mountaintop, but a vast architectural ensemble integrating both the summit and the foothills," Lyu says.

As the earliest and largest Qin imperial engineering project discovered so far in eastern China, Langyatai served as a political landmark through which the Qin and Han (206 BC-AD 220) dynasties asserted state authority, he adds.

Archaeologists also uncovered remains east of the main site that predate Qinshihuang's eastern tour and are associated with the state of Qi's administration of the Langya region.

The Qi state was one of the most powerful states during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).

"This means the site contains architectural remains from the Warring States Period, the Qin Dynasty, and the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24), together forming a long-lasting, high-level architectural complex," Lyu says.

He notes that Qin rule was short-lived and that eastern Shandong, formerly part of Qi, was the last region conquered by Qin. Because Qi surrendered without major resistance, relatively few people from the Qin heartland in present-day Shaanxi settled there, leaving a limited Qin cultural imprint on the region.

"This provides important clues for understanding the unification process of early feudal dynasties, cultural integration, and the formation of a multiethnic unified state," he says.

Researchers have also been impressed by the engineering sophistication of the Qin builders.

The mountaintop structures were equipped with an advanced drainage system that included stone-lined channels and underground ceramic pipes with tapered ends fitted tightly together. The pipes were sealed with hard red clay to prevent leakage and strengthen the joints. Rainwater flowed into the network through courtyard inlets before being discharged into open ditches.

"The entire drainage system was designed to near perfection," Lyu says admiringly. "Everything that needed to be considered, the people of that time had already considered."

The site's rammed-earth construction has drawn similar admiration. Each layer measures about eight centimeters thick and remains remarkably uniform, smooth and compact.

"After excavation, the surface is almost as hard and smooth as a modern concrete floor," he says.

The workmanship suggests that Qin construction projects mobilized enormous resources while adhering to exceptionally high standards of management and craftsmanship.

Key artifacts from the site, including the kui dragon tile ends, hollow ceramic bricks and ceramic pipes, are now on display at the Qingdao West Coast Museum.

"This magnificent site, which witnessed imperial grandeur more than 2,000 years ago, is gradually entering the public eye, bringing fresh vitality to local tourism and cultural development," Lyu says.

Sun Qi contributed to this story.