The Ming Tombs – Chang Ling

The first courtyard.

After our lovely visit to Ding Ling tomb we got back into our mini bus and drove a short way to a lovely restaurant, where, among other food we had was the most delicious fish, covered with herbs and spices. We then carried on our journey to Chang Ling.

The first Hall

Ling’en Palace.

Offerings to the Emperor and Empress.

Chang Ling is the largest of the Ming Tombs, and is absolutely beautiful. It is set out like the Forbidden City, with Halls one behind the other, separated by courtyards.

Alice, Susie and Freya next to a water spout

Chang Ling is the tomb of Emperor Zhu Di and his Empress Xu. Zhu Di reigned between 1360-1424. The actual tombs are once again underground, but in this case they are not open to the public. The buildings on this site are very beautiful and the whole site has an air of peace about it.

This is a silk burner, again there are money offerings inside.

Beautiful carved marble everywhere.

Looking back from the Blessing and Grace Palace towards the entrance.

We sat in the second courtyard and enjoyed an ice lolly, and bought ourselves the fans that you can see in some of the photos.

Inside the Ling’en Palace, such an amazing space.

Ceiling decoration

Enormous beams holding up the ceiling.

The bronze statue of Emperor Zhu Di, the plinth has nine dragons carved on it.

The main building on this site is the Ling’en Palace (Blessing and Grace Palace) it is a huge building, and an amazing space. In front of the building there is a display showing where offerings were made to the Emperor and Empress.The building has some amazing items in it, including a massive bronze statue of Zhu Di. Zhu Di was the Emperor who was responsible for moving the Capital to Beijing (Peking) and was also responsible for the building of the Forbidden City, which I did not know at the time, but I was struck by the similarities between the two places, without knowing the connection.

The Tower

As in Ding Ling there is also a beautiful tower, we climbed to the top, and admired the view.

We did not have time to visit the Sacred Way, where all the statues of the Day and Night animals are, as they quite some distance from Chang Ling, but I am very pleased I was able to visit this tomb. Looks like I need to have another visit to Beijing sometime in the future!

Susie and Freya leaving the tower.

We all had a lovely day out, my thanks go to Freya and Susie for their company on this day, and a very big Thank You to the company which Alice works for, for arranging the whole day out for us all

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