The story appears on

Page B2

April 15, 2015

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Feature » Travel

Scale Great Wall, visit royal tombs

THERE is a Chinese saying that “He who doesn’t successfully climb the Great Wall isn’t a true man.”

Setting sexist sentiments aside, it is indeed true to say that a trip to China isn’t complete without climbing the Great Wall and visiting the royal tombs in the suburbs of Beijing. The Badaling Great Wall-Ming Tombs National Scenic Area, extending to an area of 286 kilometers north of Beijing and set up in 1982, is thus designated for a one-day tour.

Like a gigantic dragon winding up and down along the mountain ranges, the Great Wall has long been a cultural symbol and pride of the Chinese nation. The walls were originally built in the Warring States periods (475-221 BC) as independent fortifications for different states. It didn’t become “great” until Emperor Qin Shihuang (259-210 BC) unified the country and joined the walls together to fend off invasions from the northern nomadic tribes.

The wall served as a military defense along the northern borders of the country and went through constant extensions and repairs.

Today, some of the sections are in ruins or have disappeared. However, it is still one of the most appealing attractions in the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance.

The Badaling Great Wall is the most well-preserved section of the Great Wall, built and reinforced during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

With an average altitude of over 1,000 meters, this section stretches for 4.8 kilometers along the mountainous terrain and has 19 watchtowers. On average, the wall is about 6 meters in height and 6.5 meters in width at its base. It’s wide enough for five or six horse or 10 soldiers to stand abreast — like an elevated highway.

As the earliest part of the Great Wall opened to tourists in 1957, the Badaling Great Wall has drawn tens of millions of tourists.

The Ming Tombs were built on the southern slope of Mount Tianshou, or Longevity of Heaven, in Beijing’s Changping District. Thirteen out of the 16 Ming emperors, as well as 23 empresses, one highest-ranking concubine and a dozen immolated imperial concubines, were buried here.

The overall layout of the Ming Tombs is like a tree. Each tomb is a branch of the tree and the trunk is the Sacred Path which leads to the different tombs. The Sacred Path, or Sheng Dao, is the only way to enter the Ming Tombs complex. There are 18 pairs of statues of guardian animals and officials lining the Sacred Path, which represent that the emperor is now ruler of an underground empire.

The largest in scale among the 13 mausoleums in Mount Tianshou is Changling, where Emperor Yongle and his Empress Xu were buried. Construction of the underground palace began in 1409 and was completed 18 years later. It occupies an area of about 120,000 square meters.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend