FRIDAY 11TH MAY 2012 ­ BST +7HRS ­ Beijing PM The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs

After lunch we made the short drive of 43km to a northern suburb of Beijing to the valley that the Ming Emperors chose as their burial site. 13 Ming Dynasty Emperors were buried in this area. During the Ming dynasty the tombs were off limits to commoners, but in 1644 Li Zicheng’s (An emperor of the short live Shun Dynasty) army ransacked and set many of the tombs on fire before advancing and capturing Beijing in April of that year.  We were not to visit the tombs – although only 3 are open to the public and many more have yet to be excavated - on this vast site but to walk the Sacred Way a 7 km road named the "Spirit way” (Shen dao) that leads into the complex. The road winds through 18 pairs of stone statues of mythical animals, which are all sculpted from whole stones and larger than life size.

We exited at the Shengong Shengde Stele Pavilion inside which there is a 50-ton tortoise shaped dragon-beast carrying a stone tablet. Four white marble Huabiao (pillars of glory) are positioned at each corner of the stele pavilion. At the top of each pillar is a mythical beast. Then come two Pillars on each side of the road, whose surfaces are carved with the cloud design, and tops are shaped like a rounded cylinder. They are of a traditional design and were originally beacons to guide the soul of the deceased