Qincheng Prison was born in secrecy. Built in 1958 with Soviet assistance, it was number 156 of 157 joint projects between China and the Soviet Union. Its name was not publicized; internally, it was simply called Project 156. Located at the eastern foothill of the Yan Mountains in Changping District, facing the North China Plain, the prison was originally designed to hold captured Kuomintang officials, the Nationalist political prisoners whom the Communists classified as enemies of the revolution. High-ranking former Nationalists were sent to the adjacent Qincheng Farm for forced labor. But this original purpose was short-lived. The last Nationalist prisoners were released in 1975, and by then, the prison's population had long since shifted to a different category of inmate entirely.

The Cultural Revolution transformed Qincheng into something its builders never anticipated. As political purges swept through the Communist Party, the prison filled with the very cadres who had built the People's Republic. Bo Yibo, a founding father of the nation's economic system. Peng Zhen, the former mayor of Beijing. Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's wife, who would later die by suicide in 1991 after being transferred to a hospital for cancer treatment. The 10th Panchen Lama, Choekyi Gyaltsen, one of Tibetan Buddhism's most revered figures. Foreign sympathizers were not spared: Israel Epstein, Sidney Rittenberg, and David Crook, Westerners who had dedicated their lives to the Chinese revolution, all found themselves behind Qincheng's iron doors. Extra buildings had to be constructed to accommodate the surge. The prison's largest population increase occurred during this period, as the revolution consumed its most loyal servants.

Qincheng operates under the Ministry of Public Security's 13th Bureau, the only prison in China under that ministry's direct control. Three gates separate the outside world from the cells within, with the first gate bearing the heaviest guard presence. Entering prisoners surrender their belongings, including shoelaces, and receive black prison uniforms and plastic utensils. Guards are forbidden from knowing prisoners' names, addressing them only by number. Interrogators and guards are strictly separated: those who investigate cases cannot enter cells, and those who guard prisoners cannot ask questions without authorization. Neither group may reveal their own names. The system is designed to create total isolation, not just from the outside world but from any human connection within the prison itself.

Qincheng is often called China's prison for the elite, and its conditions reflect that status. Prisoners receive semi-annual physical examinations and better healthcare than ordinary Chinese citizens, a disparity that has existed since the prison opened. A medical clinic with doctors and nurses operates on site, with a separate dental facility. When prisoners require serious treatment, they are transferred to Fuxing Hospital, where a segregated floor with sanded-glass windows and iron-fenced exteriors serves as a secure ward. But the privilege has limits, and medical decisions for important prisoners are often political rather than medical. During the Cultural Revolution, Kang Sheng ordered an unnecessary surgery on Shi Zhe, Mao's former personal secretary, despite doctors finding no medical justification. Senior General Luo Ruiqing, the former Minister of Public Security, was denied treatment for a broken leg and eventually subjected to an amputation that contributed to his death.