Ming Tombs

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We decided to brave the Beijing buses and headed out to see the Ming Tombs. There was a bit of confusion as to what side of the road we should be getting the bus from but with the help of Cora's future husband bus driver we were pointed in the right direction but still failed to find the correct bus stop. We stood in a queue for god know's what for a while and Ching (Cora's future husband) laughed at us a bit more but in the end we found our bus.

There's 13 out of 16 Ming emporers buried in the same area (the Ming dynasty was between 1368-1644 for those of you who like dates!) They believed that when they died their soul remained so they still had human needs so their tombs are pretty much like palaces. We went to Dingling because it's the only one that's completely excavated so we could go right into the tomb. This tomb holds emporer Wanli and his two wives, it took 6 years to complete and 30,000 workers. Pretty impressive!! There's about 10 flights of stairs down to the tomb and 5 large rooms. The first room contained the 3 thrones and offerings of vases and candles. It was here that Caitriona made the connection between a Ming vase and the Ming dynasty, we're smrt! We didn't get to see the other 3 rooms but the last room contained a number of red boxes, 3 of these contain the remains and the rest contain belongings and offerings (well the likelyhood is that they were all empty but that's not the point!)

Hopped back on the bus then to go to another tomb called Changling. Cora got to have her first conversation with Ching - it went something along the lines of "Hello!" and then another "Hello!". Sparks flew! Changling held Emporer Yongle but it hasn't been fully excavated so we only got to see a muesum of items removed from this tomb and other Ming tombs - mostly jade jewellry, silk dresses and crowns.

Headed home then and on to the bus trip from hell. I have never been in a situation where there has been so many people squashed into such a small area. At one stage the doors wouldn't close so he literally pushed everyone in - it was no fun!

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