Strangely, the walkway leading up to the tombs is far more interesting than the tombs themselves. Only three of the thirteen have been excavated, and it's a lot of work to get to any of them with relatively little reward. The tombs have been ransacked many times, so the interiors are largely empty marble rooms buried in the middle of a mountain. Above the tomb there's usually a big hall with a statue of the dead emperor, but it's all pretty spartan.

It's a good half day trip, and afterwards we returned to the city for some dim sum, and headed to the airport for our flight back to the (comparatively) clean air of Bangkok.

As you can see, the Sacred Way is lined with huge animal and people statues, meant to guard the entrance and ward off evil spirits. Strangely, the Sacred Way is slightly curved in order to confuse the spirits as an additional entrance barrier, which seems pretty weak to me. The pretty path eventually leads to the great gate, which is the largest gate in China, which also serves as the visitor center.

Monday started off with the usual crummy breakfast at the hotel, but we got a bonus fifty percent off today because Somchai found a big hair in his congee. Then we drove about an hour and a half north of Beijing to the Ming Emperors Tombs. It's a big valley encircled with mountains, important for the usual Feng Shui reasons. The thirteen Ming emperors from 1400 to mid 1600's are all buried here, each in his own palace mausoleum underneath his own mountain. The whole place is surrounded by a 40 km wall, but since the emperors needed their elbow room, even in death, it's very spread out and hard to get around. The main attraction is actually the Sacred Way, a seven kilometer walkway in the center of the area that connects all the farflung tombs.