Hiking along Ming Tombs
48 hours hiking along the footsteps of an Empire, two days through 276 years . Here buried 13 emperors, 23 Queens. either buried aspirations and legends. Those past years, Land and beauty, love and hate, countless stories waved in the wind...
Hiking along Ming Tombs one by one sounds a so good idear. One winter morning, I started my hiking along Ming Tombs.
First of all, here shows some imformations about Ming Tombs(Shisanling) :
The Ming tombs lie in a broad valley to the south of Tianshou Mountain in Changping County, about 50 kilometers northwest of Beijing . To the southwest of this valley, a branch of the Yanshan Range suddenly breaks off and forms a natural gateway to the 40-quare-kilometer basin in which the tombs were built. This gateway is “defended” on each side by the Dragon and Tiger hills, which are said to protect this sacred area from winds carrying evil influences. Thirteen out of the 16 Ming emperors are buried in this peaceful valley.
Although Beijing has been the capital of China for five dynasties, the only imperial mausoleums in the immediate vicinity of the city today are those of the Liao and Qing emperors are in the northeast China and in Hebei Province respectively. The tombs from the Jin Dynasty were destroyed at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and since the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty had no specific funeral rituals, there are no extant burial sites from this period.
Dec 1，Hiking beginned at Sacred Way (Shendao) at 8 a.m. , passing by Deling, Yongling, Jingxing, Changling, Xianling, Qingling, Yuling, Maoling, Tailing, then arrived Kangling at 6 p.m. Today we took up my quarters at Kangling village.
Dec 2，Starting from the Kangling village 9:00 a.m, passing by Dingling, Zhaoling, arrived the last SiLing about 12:30 p.m., ending about 30 kilometers walking.
In Central Mausoleum Road, looking back Yongling…
how many stories buried inside those past years …
Two donkeys guard the Mausoleum
the moat before Xianling dried up …