Entrance to the Ding Tomb 定陵
The next day was just like the previous days, cold but it was still okay. Best of all, the sky was still clear. My schedule had been thrown into disarray with the not so successful visit to Chengde. I would be attempting that trip another time, but for now, I decided to explore more of Beijing’s surrounding areas. One of the places I intended to go to was the Ming Tombs.
Stele at the Entrance of Ding Tomb 定陵
There are thirtheen tombs of Ming emperors all in roughly the same area, thus they have been called the Thirteen Ming Tombs 十三陵. Getting here was a little bit tricky as I needed to make multiple transfers. First I needed to take the train to Tiantongyuan 天通苑 station on line 5. This took a while since it was almost at the end of the subway line. At this point the train was already above ground. From here I took bus E22 to the Ming tombs. Unfortunately, this took a long time since there was a massive traffic jam on the highway, and second, the bus had to go through small streets.
I had no idea when I will be getting there and I asked a fellow passenger when I will need to get off. I was suprised to see the passenger pull out an iPad and start searching for it. I see this scene in Singapore, but this is the first time I saw someone do it in Beijing. Anyway, apparently the bus itself passes through several of the Ming Tombs and nearby the well known ones. I mistakenly got off in the middle of nowhere but it turns out I didn’t have to. I was not easy to get here so I hope this place is worth it.
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