He served as the chief archaeologist of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor and Dean of the School of Cultural Heritage of Northwest University in Xi'an.

His team discovered the ruins of China's three oldest and largest que towers, the mausoleum's large-scale underground dam and drainage system, and a large double-ramped noble tomb that ranks only below Qin Shi Huang's own mausoleum in importance.

[1] Duan's excavations led him to the conclusion that the underground realm of the mausoleum imitated the real organization of the court in the emperor's lifetime, with terracotta officials, musicians, even acrobats and realistic bronze waterfowl, in addition to the famous Terracotta Army.

[3] In his long article Sino-Western Cultural Exchange as Seen through the Archaeology of the First Emperor's Necropolis Duan Qingbo generally supported the idea that the Terracotta Army and the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum were influenced by Hellenistic art.

[4] In 2018, he also held a conferences at UCLA entitled Persian and Greek Participation in the making of China’s First Empire.

[1][9] In 2009, Duan returned to his alma mater to teach at the School of Cultural Heritage of Northwest University.