Not even an hour away from the bustling commercial centre of Xinjiekou (???) is Nanjing’s massive tourist magnet, Purple Mountain. It’s a really strange to find that, so close to a place with an unending soundtrack of car horns and thousands of unrelated conversations floating past you, you can actually find a place so incredibly quiet that you can hear your own breathing (or in my case, tinnitus).
Purple Mountain is massive, and has many attractions, the most famous of which is probably Zhongshan Ling, or the tomb of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. That area is a day or two’s worth exploring by itself, but another major area is the Ming Tombs.
The name “Ming Tombs” is, of course, in relation to the Ming Dynasty, and in fact this tomb is the resting place of the founder of it. He goes by several different names, but his final name according to the tomb is Ming Tai Zu (???). He was notable for a few reasons (not just founding a dynasty) – he was one of the only two emperors in Chinese history who wasn’t born into the throne (he was a farmer, among other things), and also, he is regarded as the ugliest emperor who ever sat in a Chinese throne. And after you see his portraits, you can kind of see why…
This mausoleum, which was completed in 1405, is a really massive area, with dozens of things to see. Just past the main gate is the iconic path adorned with massive statues of camels, elephants, horses and mythical lions, all placed there to guard the tomb from evil spirits. An impressive introduction. (However, I don’t think Ming Tai Zu ever woke up one morning and thought “hey, I bet this’ll be a tourist attraction one day”).
So as not to keep you in suspense (if you’re in any at all), there’s no actual tomb to see…it’s monument after monument, symbolism after symbolism, dedication after dedication, and at the end of the road there’s a huge wall which tells you (in old Chinese, of course, which means it’s going from right to left) that he’s actually buried in the mountain somewhere behind the wall in front of you. (Going by the multilingual map, this is called the “Treasure Mound”). But the things you see before this are grand and impressive, for instance a huge stone turtle with a lion’s face, with a massive stone tablet on its back, made by the emperor’s son in dedication to him.
And there’s tons more to see. There’s the “Purple Clouds Lake”, a tranquil man-made reservoir, surrounded by wooden bridges, stone bridges, and a basic but impressive pavilion overlooking the lake (built in the Qing dynasty, showing that Purple Mountain has been used through the dynasties), that was presumably just used to hang out on while drinking tea and playing chess. There’s also massive areas dedicated to Plum Blossoms, the famous seasonal beauties of Asia…but because they’re seasonal, make sure to time your visit if you want to see them! I went on a very cold January day, and there weren’t any flowers to be seen (I think they bloom around May, just google it. The correct name is Sakura, a Japanese word I believe).
There’s also a stunningly quiet area dedicated to Yan Zhenqing (???), one of the most famous calligraphers in Chinese history, who lived in the eighth century AD. His style, Yan, was incredibly influential, and is regarded as one of the standard styles of calligraphy today. There’s also many other areas I didn’t get around to seeing, for instance two other lakes and a dozen other little areas. Like I said, the place is BIG. If you live in Nanjing, something that might interest you is that you can get a yearly ticket into this area for 150 kuai (remember, kuai is slang for yuan). This is definitely a good option if you want to see the whole area, and you’d like to escape the bustle of the CBD on a regular basis. (The same offer applies to the Zhongshan Ling area, which is eighty kuai to get into).
A last interesting point about this place is that it’s a reminder that Nanjing has been the home of six emperors in Chinese history (Xi’an has the record with thirteen). So over the last couple of thousand years, the emperors of ancient Chinese dynasties were sitting up on what’s now called Purple Mountain, reigning over a city that bears almost no resemblance to the one we see now.
There seems to be no official website, but you can google it for more information…just google its official full title, “Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum”
Ashley Brown is an Australian arts journalist currently teaching in Nanjing.
