Matteo Ricci’s Tomb

Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit priest born in 1552 and said to have been the first Westerner in China since Marco Polo three centuries earlier, is buried here. The Emperor paid a final piece of respect to Ricci by allowing him a burial plot in Beijing, breaking the Ming Dynasty code that foreigners who died in China must be buried in Macau. Amazingly, Ricci’s tomb has survived, in a slightly overgrown cemetery behind the Beijing Administrative College, where his Chinese name, Li Madou, adorns the headstone.