Description
The Ming Tombs tour: The Ming Tombs also one of the seven world cultural heritage in Beijing, there are 13 Tombs for emperors and 23 tombs for concubines as well as princes. The first tomb built by the third emperor of Ming dynasty in 1409, built it for his wife and himself lived there in the after-death life. All the tombs for emperors here built same layout, just different size, mostly emperor built their own tomb smaller than his father’s tomb.
In the tomb area, every single tomb is a independent couryard, with large architectures on the ground for later emperor came for worshipping ancestors, also for the the deceased emperors to handle state affairs and royal family affairs in the another world, they believed something called soul still exist, still need everything like human beings, even servents and concubines. The best preserved wooden architecture for the tombs would be
Changling tomb, also this one is the first one built in this area, the symblic wooden architecture is more than 600 years old, it is the oldest Nanmu wood architecture in China, also only one preserved in it’s kind, nanmu wood is a kind of very valuable hard and slow growing wood, it is very rare now, can not find another big tree like the pillars are suporting the building.( visiting time about 1 hour).
Also another part of each tomb is under groud palace, which was built underground and sealed, without entrance and exit, the cofins for emperor and empress kept inside, as well as valuable treasures as sacrifice.
Among the 13 tombs for emperors, only one tomb undergroud palace was excavated in 1957, people can visit the confin palace by following steps get into 27 meters deep undergroud. ( visiting time about 1 hour).