Changping, Beijing, China
明十三陵 · Míng Shísān Líng
Thirteen emperors of the Ming lie in a valley north of Beijing, each in his own walled tomb under a wooded hill, all reached by one avenue of stone animals and officials. Here you can stand in the largest wooden hall of the Ming and go down into the only imperial tomb that was ever opened.
Photo: Anagoria, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
In 1409 the Yongle emperor, who had moved the Ming capital to Beijing, chose a valley under the Tianshou mountains for his tomb. Over the next 235 years twelve more emperors of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) were buried round it, each tomb set against its own hill, until the last emperor, who hanged himself as rebels took Beijing in 1644, was laid here in a borrowed grave. Together they hold thirteen emperors, twenty-three empresses and many concubines.
The site is huge, about 120 square kilometres, and only four parts are open: the Spirit Way, the great hall of Changling, the opened tomb of Dingling and the restored Zhaoling. Between them run village roads, orchards and the reservoir; plan for buses or a taxi.
Four places are open, each with its own ticket; a combined ticket covers all four. They are several kilometres apart.
| Part | Ticket |
|---|---|
| The Spirit Way | Spirit Way ticket |
| Changling | Changling ticket |
| Dingling and the underground palace | Dingling ticket |
| Zhaoling | Zhaoling ticket |
This hall of 1427, where sacrifices were offered to the Yongle emperor, is held up by sixty columns, each a single trunk of nanmu wood brought from the forests of the southwest; the four in the middle are more than a metre thick. It is one of the largest wooden halls left in China, as large as the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City.
Behind the hall, a tower stands before a round mound of earth more than three hundred metres across. The emperor lies under it, unopened.
"Each tomb lies beside the Spirit Way." The Spirit Way leads to Changling; the other tombs are spread round the valley, several kilometres apart.
"Dingling is full of treasure." Its treasures were taken out in 1958 and are shown in museums; the underground palace you walk through is empty stone halls.
We searched Chinese sources first for this list, then English ones.
A full day with transport between the sites. If you have half a day, see the Spirit Way and Dingling; if you have a car, add Changling and Zhaoling.
The road begins at a marble archway of 1540 with five openings, the largest stone archway of its kind in China, then passes the Great Red Gate and a pavilion with a tablet on a stone tortoise. Then come the statues of 1435: lions, xiezhi, camels, elephants, qilin and horses, two pairs of each, one pair standing, one kneeling; then generals, ministers and nobles. They line the road for about a kilometre.
The first and largest tomb. Besides the great hall, look in the side rooms at the copies of the Yongle Encyclopedia, the vast compilation the emperor ordered.
Climb the tower, then go down 27 metres into the tomb: five vaulted stone chambers linked by marble doors, with marble thrones for the emperor and his two empresses. The coffins in the back chamber are copies.
The tomb of the Longqing emperor, father of Wanli, was the first to be fully restored, in the 1980s, and shows what the whole complex looked like: gate, hall, galleries, tower and mound in one walled enclosure. It is the quietest of the four.
Changling was begun in 1409; in the same decade Jan Hus was preaching in Prague and the Council of Constance was trying to end the papal schism.
| Year | Here | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1409 | Changling is begun | The Council of Pisa tries to end the papal schism |
| 1435 | The statues of the Spirit Way are carved | The Medici rule Florence |
| 1584 | Dingling is begun | William of Orange is assassinated |
| 1644 | The last Ming emperor is buried here | The English Civil War is under way |
| 1956 | Dingling is excavated | The Suez crisis |
One line to remember: thirteen emperors, one valley, one tomb opened.
These are stories people tell about this place. They are legends, not history, and each one says where it comes from.
The Yongle emperor is said to have sent a fengshui master, Liao Junqing, to search the hills round Beijing, and to have renamed the mountain behind his tomb "Tianshou", Heavenly Longevity.
Source: Ming tradition retold in local histories
Later, people who live here will be able to add the stories they grew up with, and say which of these they have heard.
Last checked 2026-11-12. Prices and hours from Beijing Tourism (visitbeijing.com.cn, 2025) and 2026 ticket listings; the closure notice of the Spirit Way as published on travel sites in 2026.
Checked 2026-11-12
Opening hours are given in the local time of the place. Prices are in the local currency. The figure after ≈ is approximate, at exchange rates checked on 9 November 2026, in .
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