Due to non-operation days for NanJing Massacre memorial, we decided to go ZhongShan Mountain National Park 鍾山陵 (link) which was nearby where we were. Sound like it will be another mountain sight-seeing trip.
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| After nearly an hour of car ride, we reached Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum 鍾山陵 |
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| Look at the size of the area! |
At the ticket counter, the price of tickets wasn't cheap, but they had a bundle pricing to cover those four attractions... sounded like a good deal.
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| here was the offer! |
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| See! Four places but that day, they said we can only visit three places asDr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum was under renovation but still paid for $100... what a way of service! |
Besides, we took the bundle price and we had to pay another RB$10 for a mini car to send us to the first attraction.
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| We will take this to our first destination |
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| Windy! :D |
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| It was quite a long ride which was roughly around 10-15mins |
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| Our entrance |
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| Nice and peaceful trail |
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| And visited by Handsome Nerd, JKJK |
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| Tall trees were watching over us |
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| We were kind of lost where we should go |
● XiaoLing Mausoleum of Ming Dynasty 明孝陵
● Purple Lake 紫霞湖
● LingXing Gate 棂星门
● ShiXiang Road 石象路
● Museum of the Ming Tomb
● MeiLing Villa 美龄宫
After 10 mins walk, we arrived Ming Xiao Ling, this was my first time exploring such ancient place.
When we suggested to walk up to visit the lake nearby but we needed to walk out the tomb and walked roughly the same distance to reach that lake, my mother and ZQ's mother got restless because the tomb was too massive.
Overall it was a disappointment because I thought it will be a beautiful Lake but ended up, it was not purple lake 紫霞湖, it was 赤裸湖 (naked lake) that we cannot go up further to explore the other places and I understood that our parents were tired so we walked back again.
● Purple Lake 紫霞湖
● LingXing Gate 棂星门
● ShiXiang Road 石象路
● Museum of the Ming Tomb
● MeiLing Villa 美龄宫
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XiaoLing Mausoleum of Ming Dynasty 明孝陵
After 10 mins walk, we arrived Ming Xiao Ling, this was my first time exploring such ancient place.
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| Beautiful Flower Display infront of this mausoleum |
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| XiaoLing Mausoleum of Ming Dynasty 明孝陵 |
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| Look at the size of the Mausoleum |
This place is belongs to Ming dynasty emperor - Zhu Yuan Zhang and Empress Ma tomb. It has been there for more than 600 years, around 2003 it has been classified under conserved cultural places. For more information, click this link.
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| Long path to Mausoleum - kind of waste of land... but in China, what is a waste of space? |
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| My camera certainly captured a lot of attention by the visitors here |
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| So I jumped! :D |
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| First gateway |
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| Warm weather though |
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| a tortoise statue guarding the first hallway |
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| Check out the ancient structure |
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| second hall becomes a shophouse |
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| and a place for posing :3 |
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| Forgot who is this.... |
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| Too bad I can't take a good look at those pillar as my mother and ZQ just don't want to waste time |
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| OOOOOOOOO! BEAUTY! |
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| Main hall! It might seem like I am bigger than the wall but... it was an illusion. |
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| Wefie! |
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| Check out the gigantic stairs! |
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| Have you noticed the wall is smooth and seamless? What a piece of Mausoleum |
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| Another level |
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| Interesting staircase |
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| You can simply roll down or throw barrels down to enemy |
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| It was good too to carry heavy loads up |
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| Top floor |
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| The structure was built without a single nail |
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| I still wondered how they build such a smooth wall |
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| oh! we can view down the hall from this place |
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| Can you imagine you are leading a thousand soldiers here |
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| AWESOME ceiling |
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| If it was the past, it might become a great space for artist's drawing board |
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| Lucky there is no vandalism here |
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Purple Lake 紫霞湖
When we suggested to walk up to visit the lake nearby but we needed to walk out the tomb and walked roughly the same distance to reach that lake, my mother and ZQ's mother got restless because the tomb was too massive.
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| serenity place into the wood |
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| I fastened my steps to check out the lake before my mother and ZQ arrival |
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| Ah this was Purple Lake 紫霞湖 |
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| Clean and clear water but but.... there were number of visitors swimming in there |
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| Check out those hunky uncles |
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| Sooo... it was a nature swimming lake |
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| It seemed like it is meant for visitors to swim |
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| But I was impressed by some swimmer who swims butterfly style |
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LingXing Gate 棂星门
We looked at the map and checked our tickets... we realized this whole place is massive, and there was no coach service to send us to next destination; initially we thought that we will be riding on the coach to visit those places... that $10 only cover the first ride and if we need to travel around, we have to pay for a seven seated vehicle, $30 per person or $200 to book the whole vehicle. we felt cheated... Chop Carrot Head! Chop!
So we decided to travel by our bus 11 (foot)! LingXing Gate was just beside Ming Xiao Ling and the only way to next destination.
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| They printed ash on every tree stem to prevent insects from climbing up; actually, it was a cool idea! |
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| LingXing Gate 棂星门 |
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| Selfie with these statues without any description |
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| Around 10-15 mins walk to ShiXiang Road |
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ShiXiang Road 石象路
Shi Xiang Road was a unique road which guarded by big rock statues, sculped by artist Shi Xiang (I think... no much detail though)
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| When you see this step in China, it is important to understand the proper manner not to step on the step but to cross over |
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| Pygmy Horse |
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| Sadly no one wants to take pictures with me or these |
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| Elephant statue |
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| what a big nice grass patch |
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| Float! |
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| Camel statue |
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| It was neat to see a grey horizon or line formed by the tree |
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| Just neat |
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Museum of the Ming Tomb
Here were some random places which I don't know how to categorise under.
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| Another tomb |
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| Massive structure |
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| Why people built such big tomb for? |
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| Guarded by a tortoise |
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| Crossed a bridge which we don't know where we were heading to |
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| This was errr... okay I don't know. Hahaha |
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| Museum of the Ming Tomb |
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| A plate of Ming Xiao Ling |
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| An overview of a painting of Ming Xiao Ling (place) |
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| Woooow! this was where the emperor sat |
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| The miniature of some random palacca |
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| Epic structure! |
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MeiLing Villa 美龄宫
After 45mins walk, we reached the last stop because we forgo the other two places, and Mei Ling Gong was built around 1932.
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| Entrance of MeiLing Villa |
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| Information counter and a map |
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| What a great story |
That place construction and exterior were planned by Jiang Jie Shi (Song Mei Ling's husband) with a lot of thoughts and love, he gave this place to Song Mei Ling as token of love. To display his love to Song Mei Ling, if you viewed from top view of the building, you will see a gigantic pendant formed by 🍁 tree (seasonal) which tactically lined up and differentiated apart from normal tree plants (green); so Song Mei Ling can view and appreciate the love from Jiang Jie Shi.
You can read more here but it is in Chinese and who is Song Mei Ling
Even the exterior of the building displayed a fusion of British and Chinese architecture - to express Song Mei Ling's unique personality due to her abroad background and intelligence.
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| Check out the villa |
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| interesting fusion |
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| information counter |
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| Bathroom |
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| Officer Office |
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| Some of a few random rooms |
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| Gallery of that place |
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| What a luxury living room |
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| and dining table |
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| I doubt I will ever have a chance to dine in such place |
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| After visited Mei Ling Palace, everyone was tired and even though I will like to visit the next place since we had paid for the place... but we decided to go back early for dinner. |
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| Last floating style |
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| Not sure how it will be to ride on this Obike around exploring |
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| Let's ride back home and it was like three hours car ride |
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| Sun set and tiring... but I shall write down my thought of this trip |
Overall... it was not a fair deal unless you had been here to know what you will be getting on this trip. No wonder they didn't include the overall map of the place at the ticket counter than just graphic network of places you can travel.
I guess it will be a one time trip for me, one-time trick to fool me and one time treat for them.
Click here for Day 4 - Travel by Train to continue if anyone follows.
Jeff
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