Nanjing - Day 4 (1) Ming Xioling Tomb

(Date Travelled : 1/11/2012)

We checked in Hotel Orange when we arrived late yesterday evening. The hotel is new and clean. We had dinner at a small eatery nearby the hotel.

In the morning, we had breakfast in the hotel. We then hailed a cab to Ming Xiaoling, Tomb of emperor Chu Yuan Zhang, founder of Ming Dynasty! It's listed in the Unesco World Heritage sites and it's about 600++years old! Legend says that in order to prevent robbery of the tomb, 13 identical processions of funeral troops started from 13 gates to obscure the real burying site. (info courtesy from Wikipedia.)

This is the layout of the whole area. It's designed like a Chinese garden. I was wondering about where is the exact last resting spot. Pa then pointed to me that it's the large mound beyond the inner most structure. I still didn't get it. Let's check it out.

Before we entered the gate, we found ourselves in a path with 12 pairs of stone auspicious animals. This is served to safeguard the place.



The almighty Elephant path!

Kissing the ancient animal, the Unicorn!



The horses, but of course they are auspicious!

 

Xiezhi, another ancient sacred animal!

We all know that these animals or rather creatures are not real. They are fantasies. Created for the power of combination of a few animals.

After the Elephant path, we proceeded to the gate. When we entered, we found ourselves facing another path. At the end of it is the Tablet Hall.  The tablet hall contain a stele constructed by emperor kangxi as a homage to emperor Zhuyuanzhang who is his predecessor of 300 years.

  

 

 

This is the stele. It sits on a turtle which is often used as a sign of longevity. As you can see here, the front half of the turtle is facing the door where the second half of it is at the back of the wall. I   find this very interesting.



The front half...

The back half...



When we walked further in, we were at the second path as the layout. This path is beautifully lined with tall trees.

This place is really vast. We finally reached the inner most structure.

There is an arched entrance at the bottom of the big structure.

When we entered, we found ourselves in a tunnel with a flight of stairs upwards.

When we were out of the tunnel, there was just a wall.
But Pa, where is it? I asked. Where is the final resting spot? Pa pointed to the wall, he said "this it is". Where??   The huge mound beyond the wall!
What??  So big??   Yes, there are chambers after chambers in the mound, down there, chambers with tons of treasures!! And the chamber for the coffin!

The crafted words says "Emperor Ming is buried here"!

I was really dumbfounded. The mound is enormous! Complete with the garden and the paths!!
 

 

In the hall at the top, we read that there are lots of emperors' tomb around China and most of them like this one stayed untouched all these years. The designs are similar to each other. And the greatest among them, of course is the Emperor Qin Shi Huang with the priceless terracotta.  

 

 

View at the top of the structure.

 

Ancient gargoyles.

Sacred path.

 This is the first half of the day. To be continued to the second half of the day........