The Ming Tombs – Ding Ling Tomb (The Underground Palace)

Looking up at the tower…

….and looking down from the tower

Our first outing was on the first full day I was in Beijing, the Company that Alice works for had asked her if there was anywhere that I would like to see while I was on holiday in Beijing. Alice said she knew I would like to see the Ming Tombs, as we did not get there last time we were in China, so, courtesy of the company Alice, myself and two lovely young Chinese ladies Freya and Susie were taken to two of the tombs.

The Ming Tombs consist of 13 sites in all, 4 of which are open to the Public, we were lucky enough to be taken to two of these sites.

Entering the site

Ancient Cyprus trees and their roots..

The Ding Ling Tomb was the first of the sites we visited, the Underground Palace was discovered in 1956. The Palace is the mausoleum of the Emperor Zhu Yijun and his Empress and his favourite concubine. Zhu Yijun reigned for 48 years  from 1563 – 1620, and the tomb was built between 1584 and 1590.

The tomb bed with the money offerings

The Emperors Throne, again with monetary offerings.

We entered the site and made our way up through the woods to the entrance of the Tomb, as the Palace is underground we found had to climb down an awful lot of stairs, we went down and down and down. In fact the Palace is  a marble vault situated 88ft below ground. The thought of climbing back up all the stairs was a bit daunting, but I thought it would at least be cooler that far down. I was wrong in both cases!

The back of the Emperors Throne, marble of course.

Marble doorways between the Halls

The Rear Hall with the replica coffins, and boxes containing the treasures.

There are five very large, vaulted marble chambers in the Palace, we entered the Tomb in the Left Hall. Here was the coffin bed of the Emperor, although there are no coffins here. Instead there was a very large pile of money! Alice said the money is left there as offerings to the Emperor, and his wives.

Looking back into the tomb from the Diamond Wall

The exit from the tomb.

The Central Hall chamber holds the thrones of The Emperor, his wife and the concubine. These are all made of marble, each has the five glazed offerings plus a large blue china jar which would have held sesame oil. You can see from the photos the large amount of money here too. A lot of very valuable items were found in the tomb, these are now on display at the museum, sadly we did not have time to see them.

The Soul Tower at the top of the Hill holds this large ‘Stele’

The carving at the top of the ‘stele’

The carving at the base of the ‘stele’

The Rear Chamber holds the replicas of the coffins of the Emperor, Empress and the concubine, where many of the priceless treasures were found.

 

The Tower holding the ‘stele’

Wonderful carvings and roof tiles topping the wall surrounding the tomb.

We left the tomb by way of the Diamond Wall, I am unsure why it is called this, but this was the main entrance to the tomb, and the first part of the tomb that was excavated in 1956.

The elephant table and stools, I totally fell in love with these and wanted to bring them home with me, but I wasn’t allowed to!!

Susie, Alice and Freya on the elephant stools.

I said I would sit on an elephants back on this trip, I had no idea it would be one like this, aren’t they just lovely?

Ming Tombs – Changling in the next blog

Beijing revisited

Alice and I with our much needed fans at the Ming Tombs.

I have been and gone and come back again! I had a fabulous week with my lovely daughter, Alice, even though the temperature was 36 degrees when I arrived, and did not get much cooler the whole time I was there, not even at night!

Flying to Beijing, the sunset from above the clouds, the light is on the wing of the plane. This lovely sight accompanied us for about 2 hours, this is the beauty of having a window seat when flying!

I have decided to go a general Beijing blog to start off with, sights of the city, what we look like, that sort or thing, starting with the flight out.

Hello China

Hello Beijing!

Just to complicate things my son had been unwell for a few days before I left, the day I flew out I had to ask my lovely friend Sheila to take me to Heathrow, as Joe was not well enough to be left, so my husband stayed at home with him. Sheila stepped up to the mark with flying colours, and got me safely to Heathrow in plenty of time. What a friend! I can’t thank her enough for her help, and she has a couple of presents waiting for her from China As it turned out my son was suffering from appendicitus, which we did not know when I left. He ended up in hospital the next day and had the offending appendix taken out! I was of course very worried but there was absolutely nothing I could do from 5000 miles away! I am pleased to say Joe is now on the mend, except he keeps reminding me that I left him while he was dying…..jokingly of course!

On to the photos

The first night in Beijing, taken about 10pm, the temperature is a very hot and humid 36.

The children were having a wonderful time cooling off in the fountain at the Sanlitun Village Shopping Centre, the fountains whoosh up to about 10 feet or so, its lovely to watch

A restaurant about 10 minutes walk away from Alice’s flat, lovely food and very comfortable

Alice at the restaurant in the above photo, that is coffee in the glasses, which we decided to treat as dessert. It was absolutely delicious, but this was quite late at night and we both had trouble sleeping that night, serves us right I suppose but it was worth it!!

Walking back to the flat, no idea what it says!!

Another street scene

I had to include a photo of the Foo Dogs didn’t I?

A Hutong just round the corner from Alice’s flat, again this is late evening, everyone sits out enjoying the evenings, even if they are not much cooler than the days.

A Majong board, outside a local shop, the players will come back when they are ready. This is the sort of sight we just don’t see in this country, which is a real shame I think.

I have some more street scene photos but will keep them for the last blog of my Chinese Adventures.

Next blog - The Ming Tombs

Fantastic Birthday Present!

Some of you will remember that I had a fabulous holiday in China in 2011, I am thrilled to say that I am going out there again this Friday . I can’t believe that I am getting the opportunity to go out there again, when I never thought I would ever visit a country as amazing as this once, let alone twice!

My daughter has been on a three month secondment with her job in Beijing and is due back in this country in August. I had a special Birthday last month and this trip is my birthday present from my lovely daughter! I am only going for a week this time, but I am getting very excited now. I am sure I will take a few (!) photos while I am there, so look out for some, hopefully good, photos when I get back. we are staying in Beijing for the week, but there are plenty of places there that I never got to see last time – we are starting with a trip to the Ming Tombs on Sunday so I will be seeing the ‘Night and Day’ animals that line one of the routes to the tombs.

Woohoo, how lucky am I??

Beautiful Beihai Park, we will be going there again on this trip. Such a lovely place

St. Augustine’s Church, Northbourne, Kent

The same day that my friend and I visited St Mary The Virgin Church, Woodnesborough we also visited St. Augustine’s Church in Northbourne. I first found this Church back in January while I was trying to find Northbourne Parish Hall where we were due to go for a pantomime, but at that time I was unable to go into the Church.

Beautiful winter sunshine, showing the church off to the best advantage.

The weather vane.

St Augustine’s was built in the 12th Century in the cruciform shape, and is believed to have been built on the site of an older Saxon Church. The setting of this church is lovely, there is a large churchyard surrounding this pretty little church, and the entrance doorway has a lovely Tympanum (as seen on the church of St. Nicholas at Bafrestone and the church of St Mary in Betteshanger) which can be seen when you enter the porch, which I think is probably a much later addition.

Inside the porch.

The entrance door showing the Tympanum above.

Beautiful weathered door at the back of the church.

The Lady Chapel is situated in one of the ‘arms’ of the cross has a wonderful marble statue of Sir Edwin Sandys and his wife. Sir Edwin helped to start the East India Company, and was involved in establishing the State of Virginia in 1607.

The Sir Edmund Sandys memorial statue.

The marble Altar.

The other ‘arm’ of the cross is totally taken up by a very large organ, and the only stained glass windows I could see are situated behind the organ! Undeterred by that, I managed to get behind the organ to get some photos!

The marble Altar is beautiful, and looking from the back of the Church to the Altar is a lovely sight, but sadly looking from the Altar to the back of the Church the view is not quite so pretty, and we both agreed that the feeling of the Church is quite different from St. Marys in Woodnesborough.

Looking towards the Altar from the back of the church.

The beautiful roof at the back of the building.

Looking to the back of the church from the Altar, the organ is in the alcove on the right, the Lady Chapel is in the alcove on the left.

Every church evolves over the centuries, and there is almost a feeling that what must have been a very beautiful church has at some time has not been loved as much as it should have been. These country churches are all different, many still have thriving congregations, as does this one, and I for one am very pleased that we can still visit such amazing buildings that have stood for over 900 years.

   

The marble Altar carvings were so beautiful, they deserved a photo each