Qing Tombs (East)

There are two sites of Qing era tombs. As the guide told it, there was an emperor who felt that his dad and grandad had already taken the best sites in the Western site so he hired a feng shui expert to find a new site.

I went with Beijing Hikers, http://www.beijinghikers.com/ and it was 450rmb for the day which included a huge lunch at a restaurant, water, Kitkat and banana.

It is approx 3 hrs out of town. We went through a place where animal guardians watch the funeral procession, then were driven round to the tomb of Empress Dowager Cixi. It was so cold inside and the walls are all stone carving. It's completely bare - the stands that various treasures sat on are there alone due to looting. We went to another tomb, Emperor Qing Long which I thought was much grander - there are buddhas and guardians carved all through it, and it is a 3 chamber tomb. Also very cold. We had enough of tombs then (there is much walking - these things are really quite large) so we voted to go to a temple instead.

We had left Lido Hotel pick up point at 8am and came back around 5.30pm. The countryside of the site is bumpy and many places there are no sealed roads. It was much of an adventure.

Here's a history lesson on Eastern Qing tombs: http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/atam/115430.htm

So tired!!