Home > China Guide >> Beijing Travel Guide >> Ming Tombs

Ming Tombs

The Ming Tombs located in Changping District, about 50 kilometers from the northwest of Beijing, is enclosed by mountains in three sides. The imperial cemetery covers an area of 120 square kilometers with 13 Ming emperors, 23 empresses and a number of concubines, princes, and princesses buried there, and thus it is also called 13 Mausoleums. These tombs are the best preserved Chinese imperial tombs and has been nominated by the UNESCO as the world cultural heritages.

History of Ming Tombs
Ming TombsThe Ming Dynasty started from 1368 to 1644, lasting 1368 to 1644,lasting 276 years. From the Yongle Emperor onwards, 13 Ming Dynasty Emperors were buried in this area. The tombs of the first two Ming Emperors are located near Nanjing (the capital city during their reigns). Emperor Jingtai was also not buried here as the Emperor Tianshun had denied Jingtai an imperial burial but was instead buried west of Beijing. The last Emperor Chongzhen who hung himself in April, 1644 was the last to be buried here, named Si Ling by the Qing emperor but on a much smaller scale than his predecessors.

China's feudal society had a strict system for designating graves, stipulating that the tomb for emperors was to be called ling(mausoleum); for princes and noblemen, zhong(tomb); for sages, lin(forest) and for common people(grave).

The site of the Ming Dynasty Imperial Tombs was carefully chosen according to Fengshui (geomancy) belief. The first tomb, Chang Ling, or Tomb of Chang, began to be built by the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the seventh year of his reign (1409 AD) before the main peak of Tian Shou (literally, heavenly longevity)Mountain. (The first emperor of Ming Dynasty was buried in Najing). In chronological order for the following 200 years, Xiang Ling(Ling means great tomb in Chinese), Jing Ling, Yu Ling, Mao Ling, Zong Ling, Kang Ling, Yong Ling, Zhao Ling, Ding Ling, Qing Ling and De Ling were built and spread on both sides of the Chang Ling. All these tombs share a same Sacred Way that crosses the middle of the tomb zone. The last tomb, for Emperor Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian, lying in the southwest of the zone, was actually built out of a tomb originally intended for a concubine. Several decades after the death of the last Ming emperor, Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty gave the last Ming Tomb the tile and added the architecture on the ground. Besides the emperor's tombs scatters lots of smaller tombs for concubines and a eunuch.

Sacred Way in Ming Tombs
Scared RoadSacred Way (Shen Dao) is 7 kilometers long, the longest in China's royal tombs, from south to north across the center of the tombs area. It was thought to have leaded the emperors' souls to enter heaven. It was a path built as a part of the tomb for the Ming emperors, connecting the entrance with real tomb. It was built for the first tomb Changling - the tomb of Emperor Yongle at first, the most powerful emperor in the Ming dynasty. But as the later tombs were built either to the right or to the left, it became the main road to all of them. It is a long, straight path flanked by statues first of ancient government officials and then by animals. The Sacred Way ends at a pavilion sheltering a stone tablet. They formed one group, but each tomb is independent of the other.

Changling in Ming Tombs
Only the Changling and Dingling tombs are open to the public. Changling, the chief of the Ming Tombs, is the largest in scale and is completely preserved. The total internal area of the main building is 1956 square meters. There are 32 huge posts, and the largest measures about 14 meters in height.It inhumes Emperor Zhudi, the fourth son of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Travel China Guide recommends the Lingsi Palace in its second yard as really deserving a visit. This is unique as it is the only huge palace made of camphor wood. The ceiling is colorfully painted and supported by sixteen solid camphor posts. The floor was decorated with gold bricks.

Dingling in Ming Tombs
Unlike Changling, Dingling is under ground and about 27 meters deep. It is the mausoleum of Emperor Zhu Yijun, the thirteenth emperor who occupied the throne the longest during the Ming Dynasty, and his two empresses. The main features are the Stone Bridge, Soul Tower, Baocheng and the Underground Place, which was unearthed between 1956 and 1958. The entire palace is made of stone. The Soul Tower is symbolic of the whole of Dingling and it forms the entrance to the underground chambers. The yellow glazed tiles; eaves, archway, rafters and columns are all sculptured from stone, and colorfully painted.

Since located not far from Badaling Great Wall, usually tourists of Ming Tombs like to visit Badaling Great Wall together:
Beijing Badaling Great Wall, Ming Tombs, Olympic Stadium Day Tour by Bus for $20