Imperial Tombs
One of the justifications for inscription reads: "The Ming and Qing Tombs are dazzling illustrations of the beliefs, world view, and geomantic theories of Fengshui prevalent in feudal China. They have served as burial edifices for illustrious personages and as the theatre for major events that have marked the history of China."
The Tombs are located in the Hubei, Hebei, Jiangsu and Beijing provinces.
Visit March 2004
I visited the Ming Tombs on a daytour with a Chinese group. The trip, every day available for 50 yuan at the Qianmen busstop, also took us to the Wall at Badaling. For the tombs we stopped at Changling and Dingling.
Changling consists of three courtyards. It's a fine place to walk around. At Dingling, also known as the Underground Palace, you can go .. underground. About seven meters below the ground there is a series of large, hollow rooms. Here the coffin of Emperor Wanli was found, together with two of his Empresses.
Because of the tour, I didn't have the opportunity to see the Great Palace Gate or the Avenue of Stone figures. My guidebooks reccomend those, to see it you have to go there on your own (by taxi for example).
More photos can be found in the Picture Gallery
Reviews
Boj (Philippines):
Jiangsu Province, Nanjing. Traveled with two friends on 22nd November, 2008.
Ming Xiaoling Tombs is part of the whole Zijin Mountain scenic area. Package ticket of 140RMB per person gives access to Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Memorial Hall and the Ming Tombs. It is early winter, but the autumn leaves at this time are at their most brilliant.
From Shanghai, Nanjing can be a quick weekend trip. |
| Date posted: November 2008 |
Gladys (Singapore):
Most of the tourist sites in China, such as the Ming tombs have concession tickets for the elderly over 65 or 70. Some places requires you to be 65, while some requires you to be 70 in order to qualify for 50% off the adult admission rate. If I remember correctly, the Ming Tombs offer 50% off for seniors above 65. Do remember to bring along your I.D. to prove your age.
Overall, I think it was a nice place to visit, but it will get extremely crowded in the underground palace. There were many local chinese visitors and most of them were quite rude and pushy. Do beware of your personal belongings as the locals have a very bad habit of pushing their way through instead of saying "excuse me". |
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C H Ho (Hong Kong, China):
There are 3 sites combined into this heritage. I visited 1 of them at Eastern Beijing called East Qing Imperial Tombs. A famous queen who was buried here. There had a myth about her tomb. She was buried with a large gem inside her mouth. Surprisingly, her corpse was mummified. However, a tomb thief stole the gem out and her corpse was turned into bone. The story seems not scientific but it would increase your interest to visit a site. |
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Rob Wilson (UK):
The Ming Tomb in Nanjing, which is part of this site, is interesting but unspectacular.
The burial mound itself has not been excavated and is only of passing interesting.
Since its addition to the world heritage list the tomb's entry fee has been raised to 50 yuan. This is a rather exhorbitant figure considering the nature of the site. |
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