Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs

Asian Adventure: Roof of the World Tour Overview
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: The Cabin at HKG
Asian Adventure: Cathay Dragon A330-300 Business Class Hong Kong to Beijing
Asian Adventure: Regent Beijing Hotel
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Dongcheng District
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Great Wall
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Run-ze Jade Garden
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Legend of Kung Fu
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Tiananmen Square
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Forbidden City
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Hutong Tour via Rickshaw, Tea Tasting, Flying to Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Hotel Shangri-La Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Qing Dynasty Terra Cotta Warriors
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show
Asian Adventure: Xi’an Wrap-Up, Flying to Lhasa, Lhasa Home Visit
Asian Adventure: Shangri-La Hotel Lhasa
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Market
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Canggu Nunnery and Sera Monastery
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Potala Palace
Asian Adventure: Leaving Lhasa and Flying to Chongqing
Asian Adventure: Viking Emerald
Asian Adventure: Shibaozhai Temple
Asian Adventure: Cruising the Three Gorges
Asian Adventure: Three Gorges Dam
Asian Adventure: Jingzhou City Walls Tour
Asian Adventure: Wuhan - Hubei Bells Performance and Provincial Museum
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Shanghai Museum
Asian Adventure: Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Old Shanghai and Yuyan Gardens
Asian Adventure: The New Otani Tokyo Hotel
Asian Adventure: Tokyo - City Tour
Asian Adventure: Mt. Fuji and Hakone Tour Returning by Shinkansen
Asian Adventure: ANA Suites Lounge Review, Tokyo Narita
Asian Adventure: All Nippon Airways B777-300ER First Class Tokyo Narita to Houston

It's sad that weather can make such an impact in regards to your feelings about a place but with the steady rain all day long, standing out in it - even with umbrellas - all day is just not fun.  The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs is a UNESCO World Heritage Site so I would like to have been able to spend more time here, learning a little more about it while we were there but in truth I learned more reading its Wikipedia page for writing this post.

These tombs were a collection of mausoleums built by thirteen of the emperors of the Ming dynasty, beginnning with the third emperor in the early 15th century.  The 17th emperor committed suicide in 1644 and his was the last tomb constructed here.  Feng shui principles were used to select the tomb sites because it dictates that bad spirits and evil winds come from the north so the tombs are on south-facing slopes of Tianshou Mountain in an effort to deflect them.

The Sacred Way got its name because it leads from the valley below to the foot of the mountain where the tombs are found.  This map may help to explain the layout a bit better:

We walked the route in reverse, as if coming down from the mountain and the tombs.  We first passed through the Dragon and Phoenix Gate.

Dragon and Phoenix Gate

We then passed six pairs of statues of government officials and then twelve pairs of animal statues.  Each animal has two pairs of statues: one standing and one kneeling or prone.  Legend has it that the animals have a changing of the guard at midnight but we chose not to stick around for that.  Each of the statues is constructed from whole stone.

Standing Horse

Kneeling Horse

Standing Elephant

Kneeling Elephant - notice anything odd?

Once we passed all the statues we came to a small plaza where there would be vendors selling things but with the rain, no one was around.  We did see this stand and I think that visitors take these strands, hang them somewhere and light them on fire while praying for the dead.  But I'm not totally sure about that.

We then came upon the Shengong Shengde Stele Pavilion.  Inside is a Bixi turtle carrying a giant stele.  A Bixi turtle is a mythological creature that is one of the nine sons of the Dragon King and is commonly used in funerary complexes of emperors.

Shengong Shengde Stele Pavilion

Bixi Turtle with a Stele on its back

Outside the Stele Pavilion are four white marble pillars, or Huabiao, each topped with a mythological creature.  Two of the creatures face forward and two face back toward the pavilion, symbolizing the hope that the emperor will neither cling to the pavilion nor forget to return.

Huabiao with a mythological creature

There was probably a good deal more we could have learned and enjoyed about this site but unfortunately with the rain all we wanted to do was get dry and stay dry.  Once we ended our time here we were able to return to the hotel and do just that.