Ming Shisanling - Ming Emperors' States of Immortality

---

During my last trip to China in December, Liz Headland, Sam Yeung and I had planned visiting the Ming Dynasty Tombs after our visit to Simatai. In the end, the trip to that segment of the Great Wall took longer than we had expected and we decided to leave the Ming tombs for a future visit. The future came sooner than expected and after arriving in China on March 28 for a week and a half business engagement. I was able to take advantage of the weekend to resume last December’s plan, though this time it would be up to Sam and me and without Liz.

Sam arrived at my hotel early in the morning on the same hired taxi from the December trip. From there, we drove the 50 or so kilometers northwest bound from Beijing towards the tombs’ site.

Ming Chao Shisanling (13 tombs of the Ming Dynasty) is the final resting place of most of the Ming emperors and their families, starting with Yongle the 3rd emperor from this dynasty (1402-1424), creator of the Forbidden City: and ending with Emperor Chongzhen (1611-1644) who in the midst of a popular revolt, hung himself from a tree, ending the dynasty.

In comparison to the relatively recent Eastern Qing Dynasty Tombs, which were inspired by these particular mausoleums, this site is not as well preserved. Though Emperor Yongle’s mausoleum (Changling Tomb), through a higher degree of restoration work may still look as majestic as it did when he died, many of the mausoleums in this site are in disrepair and show their age.

Unlike what happened to the Qing site, most of the Ming tombs remain undisturbed and those that have been excavated (e.g. Dingling tomb, burial site of Emperor Wanli and his two empresses, Xiao Duan and Xiao Jing 1573-1619). , have provided extensive archeological record of this period of Chinese history and without suffering the looting that took place with many of the Qing burial sites.

As he did during our last trip, Sam provided great storytelling about the Ming period of Chinese history. Being a history buff, Sam knew the circumstances (political, economical, and personal) surrounding the reign of each emperor and made the visit much more interesting.

As we left the parking lot of the last mausoleum, Sam found a street vendor who was selling a variety of nuts and dried fruits. The typical Western tourist would not buy anything looking like what this woman was selling, but Sam bought enough of it to feed an entire family for a week. He shared this informal meal with the taxi driver and me as we headed for the next location.

Having finished the visit to the official sites, Sam and I asked our taxi driver to take us to the less-known mausoleums to see if it was possible to get close to some of the un-restored areas of the site. My book travel guide of China describes these areas as a popular destination for expatriates whom often have picnics among these ruins. Our driver had to go on some roads that were not intended for normal motor vehicles. We discovered that every un-restored mausoleum that we found had been sealed with a metal gate and chains, rounding off the usual stonewalls around them. The Chinese government must have realized that the damage inflicted by casual visitors was becoming too great and decided to seal off all of the mausoleums that have not gone through extensive restoration. Sam, our hired taxi driver and I did not have the opportunity to gain entrance to any of these areas.

On the last one visited, we discovered that there was a high hill behind the mausoleum site where it might be possible to peek inside the encircling wall. The three of us walked around the site clockwise until we reached the foot of the hill in the back. Sam and I climbed the hill and from there, we were able to see what was left of the tallest structure in the mausoleum, most of it crumbling and barely visible through the trees. After our curiosity was partly satisfied, we returned to the taxi from the other side and decided to return to Beijing to have a more substantial meal than what we could get in the area.

---

Photos

Ming Tombs Artifact
Gold and jade craftmanship sample

Unrestored Mausoleum
From outside the iron gate

Back of Unrestored Mausoleum
From the top of the hill behind the tomb