Today is the highlight for our trip in Beijing because we are going to The Great wall of China, and Ming Dynasty Tombs.
Today we NEED to get ready for a long drive and meet our tour guide and the driver at 7am!
It took about an hour to the first stop at the Ming Dynasty Tombs where it’s literally “13 Tombs of the Ming Dynasty”… These are located some 42 kilometers from central Beijing.
Once we got here, I couldn’t believe this is a tomb!
One of the entrances to the Ming Dynasty Tombs site
The Ming Tombs were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in August 2003. They were listed along with other tombs under the “Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties” designation.
The tour guide told us that Zhu Di, the third emperor who started to make this tomb is the Emperor that moved the capital of China from Nanjing to its the present location in Beijing.
But the first emperor Zhu yuan zhang made his own tomb here since he was still alive… because he thought, “I can’t pick the place to be born but I can pick the place to live after I die”
At present, only 3 tombs are open to the public. There have been no excavations since 1989, but plans for new archeological research and further opening of tombs have circulated. They can be seen on Google earth: Chang Ling, the largest and Ding Ling whose underground palace has been excavated and Zhao Ling.
Today we visited Dingling…
This tomb site, is the tomb of the Wanli Emperor. It is the only one of the Ming Dynasty Tombs to have been excavated.
AND it’s so huge! and it’s more than just a cemetery…
Before we leave, the tour guide told us to walk through this gate and shout “I’m home!”…actually he told us to say that in Chinese…but I can’t spell it here…
He said, we walked in the tomb, it’s just like we walked in to the ghost town. So to save our soul when we walk out, we have to say “I’m back!”…
The Ming Tombs wouldn’t be anything special if you don’t come with the tour guide, because they will be the only person who tells the story …
Now we leave to THE GREAT WALL!
It takes almost 1.5 hrs from Ming Tombs to The great Wall…So let’s go!!!
