Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
guide you himself or sort out someone else to
do it.
The ho
me-c
ooked food, incidentally, is
excellent - ask if he has any trout. Rooms from
￥
70
, dorms
￥
15
The Ming Tombs and around
十三陵
, shísān líng
After their deaths, all but three of the sixteen Ming-dynasty emperors were entombed in giant
underground vaults, the
Shisan Ling
(literally, Thirteen Tombs), usually referred to in Eng-
lish as the
Ming Tombs
. Two of the tombs, Chang Ling and Ding Ling, were restored in the
1950s; the latter was also excavated.
The tombs are located in and around a valley 40km northwest of Beijing. The location,
chosen by the third Ming emperor (Yongle) for its landscape of gentle hills and woods, is un-
deniably one of the loveliest around the capital, the site marked above ground by grand halls
and platforms. That said, the fame of the tombs is overstated in relation to the actual interest
of their site, and unless you've a strong archeological bent, a trip here isn't worth making
for its own sake. The tombs are, however, very much on the tour circuit, being conveniently
placed on the way to
BadalingGreatWall
. The site also makes a nice place to picnic, espe-
cially if you just feel like taking a break from the city. To get the most out of the place, it's
better not to stick to the tourist route between the car park and Ding Ling, but to spend a day
here and hike around the smaller tombs further into the hills. You'll need a map to do this -
you'll find one on the back of some Beijing city maps, or you can buy one at the site (
￥
2).
On the way to or from the tombs, you may care to stop by at the rather good
Aviation Mu-
seum
, a miniature airport's worth of downed planes.
The Spirit Way
神道
, shéndào • Daily 7am-7pm •
￥
35
The approach to the Ming Tombs, the 7km
Spirit Way
, is Shisan Ling's most exciting fea-
ture, and it's well worth backtracking along from the ticket office. The road commences with
the
Dahongmen
(Great Red Gate), a triple-entranced triumphal arch, through the central
opening of which only the emperor's dead body was allowed to be carried. Beyond, the road
is lined with colossal stone statues of animals and men. Alarmingly larger than life, they all
date from the fifteenth century and are among the best surviving examples of Ming sculpture.
Their precise significance is unclear, although it is assumed they were intended to serve the
emperors in their next lives. The animals depicted include the mythological
qilin
(a reptilian
beast with deer's horns and a cow's tail) and the horned, feline
xiechi
; the human figures are
stern military mandarins. Animal statuary reappears at the entrances to several of the tombs,
though the structures themselves are something of an anticlimax.
