There are 13 emperors of the Ming dynasty buried in this area, so it is called the Ming Tombs, which occupies 80 square kilometers in area. It is located in Changping District, about 50 kilometers to the northwest of Beijing.
The first emperor of the Ming dynasty is emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. In 1368, when he established the Ming dynasty, he had Nanjing as his capital, And then he built his tomb Xiaoling in Nanjing. After he died he was buried in Nanjing.
When the third emperor Zhu Di came to the throne, he decided to move the capital from Nanjing to Beijing. Because he had been a frontier commander in Beijing for many years, he knew that Beijing had a very important strategic position in the whole country and a peaceful northern frontier was very important to the Ming Court too. Moving the capital to Beijing could more effectively resist the remnant Mongolian forces and to strengthen his control over the whole country. Apart from that Emperor Yingzong missed his former headquarters in Beijing as well. Because of all this, Emperor Zhu Di decided to move the capital from Nanjing to Beijing.
Unfortunately, in 1407 Empress Xu died. In order to show his determination on moving the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, Emperor Zhu Di decided to build the imperial tomb in Beijing instead of in Nanjing.
The construction of Changling was started in 1409, and it took 18 years to complete. The whole construction of Changling was completed in 1427, But the underground tomb was completed in 1413, so Empress Xu was moved from Nanjing and buried in the Ming Tombs area first.
Emperor Zhu Di died in 1424. After him, twelve other Ming emperors also had their tombs built in this area so there are altogether thirteen tombs in this area.
In 2003, the Ming Thirteen Tombs were listed as a world cultural heritage site by UNESCO.
Author: AmoyTrip.com--The History of the Ming Tombs
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