Ming Tombs, Beijing

As you are making your way to and from the Ming Tombs, don't miss the heavenly road. Many of the guided tours will not take you there, or if they do there is an extra charge. It is well worth the extra bicks to see it though.

The road itself forms a perfectly straight line that runs from the Ming Tombs in the north, down through the heavenly road through the forbidden city (Still in a straight line), through Tienanmen, and then continuing the striaght line to the temple of heaven.

The part of the road you want to focus on, for the purposes of this review, is near the ming tombs. The road contains many beautifully carved statues and gardens. The picture on the main Beijing page with the girl with the umberlla was taken here, as is the picture on this page.

The statues are cool! There is one of a tax collector, he is holding a tablet with the names of actual people who were delinquent in their taxes back hundreds of years ago! Each statue is amazing in its size and detail should not be missed.

I am impressed by the statues of animals and mythical animals leading to the Ming Tombs. However, it is disappointing that most tombs are empty.

Nonetheless, it a trip worth the while. Usually it is part of a stop-over along the way to the Great Wall of China. And so great to stretch the legs if the weather is fine.

The Ming Tombs are scattered all over a valley to the West of Beijing. My understanding is that there are 13 in all - one for each of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. Only 3 are open to the public so far. I was told that this is because the others are still being studied.

The Tomb we visited is the largest of the 13, although I'm ashamed to admit I don't remember the name of the emporer entombed there.

This is a wonderful site for many reasons. First, it is outside of Beijing, so you get a chance to get out of the city and see a bit of the countryside. Second, it is relatively close to the Great Wall, so you can see both in one day. Third, although it is on the small size, site wise, there are some very neat things to see: a giant statue of the emperor, facsimiles of many recovered relics from the tomb, and fantastic trees and flowers. It all adds up to a great site. We only spent about 45 mins here, but I probably wouldn't have spent much more on my own, maybe an hour or two.

The great red entrance - The holy lane of animals and guardians leading and protecting the Ming Graves.
The lane is about 6.4 km long and many statues of animals and guardians are shown.
Emperors just passed away, had to pass the red portal where you can see an enormous sculpture of a turtle - symbol of a long life.

The Ming Tombs are pretty impressive, even though only one of the 13 has been excavated. The main one has many interesting buildings, including the Soul Tower (pictured here.)

The beauty of the buildings, and the artifacts are pretty amazing, since there is nothing like them in the west. Take some extra time to walk around the mound and get a good look at the site, also a great view of the area is available from the Soul Tower.

I visited the Ming Tombs while on the local tour. Either there wasn't much to see or the buildings where closed at the time. But I didn't come away from the Ming Tombs thinking Wow! that was nice. I had heard about the Ming Tombs all of my life so I thought they were going to be a little more exciting. A ticket to the grounds was about US$.10 cents. (Circa 1987) I still have my ticket glued into my journal.

During the Ming Dynasty established by Han Chinese coming from an agricultural society in central China, where people believed the existence of an after-world, where the dead "lived" a life similar to that of the living. Ming emperors, therefore, have grand mausoleums built for themselves.

Known for its fine porcelains, a Chinese invention, the Ming era is also one of important deeds. The emperors built the Imperial Palace in Peking, reconstructed and extended the Great Wall, and dispatched sea-going vessels to explore Southeast Asia and the Red Sea. Ming society became a sophisticated urban and commercial one, dominated by highly cultivated literati and prosperous merchants.

4 more images

The General Sacred Way\ Dingling Underground Palace\ Changling Ling'en Dian which is made of Nanmu

It was so quite when I walking on the Sacred Way, touching those vivid stone statues, imaging how powerful of the Emperors used to be. but now the owners all gone for handreds years, only those stone statues left...

The Underground Palace of Dingling is the only one of the Ming tombs excavated so far. More than 3,000 pieces of cultural relics were unearthed from Dingling. tourist can see some of them in Dingling Museum, i was totally crazy for those real Gold ingot\ Gold crown\ Jade belt\ Jade cup\ Jade bowl...b4 can only see them on TV series.

the last thing is the Ling'en Dian of Changling, it made of Nanmu (a kind of rare hard wood). and its the only remains of the hall-and-gate structures among the Ming Mausoleums, and deseve to be the treasure of ancient Chinese architecture. As i know how rare Nanmu is, and how expensive are they in ancient time, when i saw the big hall full of Nanmu, i even forgot to close my mouth. it is amazing hall!