The Ming Tombs are located at the foot of Tianshou Mountain in Changping District, Beijing City, with a total area of more than 120 square kilometers and about 50 kilometers away from Tiananmen Square. The Ming Tombs are located in a small basin surrounded by mountains on three sides in the east, west and north. The mausoleum area is surrounded by mountains, the middle is a plain, and there is a winding river in front of the mausoleum. From the beginning of the construction of Changling in May of the seventh year of Yongle (1409) to the burial of Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, in Siling, more than 230 years, thirteen emperor tombs, seven imperial tombs, and one eunuch tomb were built. A total of thirteen emperors, twenty-three empresses, two princes, more than thirty concubines, and two eunuchs were buried.

Two of the sixteen emperors of the Ming Dynasty were buried elsewhere, one was missing, and the remaining thirteen were buried in Tianshou Mountain, so they were called the "Ming Tombs".

As of 2011, the "Ming Tombs" have opened scenic spots including Changling, Dingling, Zhaoling, and Shenlu.

Ding Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty is the tomb of Zhu Yijun (year name Wanli), the thirteenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty. His two queens are also buried here. The mausoleum is located at the foot of Dayu Mountain, southwest of Changling. It was built from 1584 to 1590 (from the 12th year of Wanli to the 18th year of Wanli).

The Ming Tombs are the general term for the royal tombs of the 13 emperors after the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing. They were successively built Changling (Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty), Xianling (Emperor Renzong of the Ming Dynasty), Jingling (Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty), Yuling (Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty), Maoling (Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty), Tailing (Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty), Kangling (Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty), Yongling (Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty), Zhaoling (Emperor Muzong of the Ming Dynasty), Dingling (Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty), Qingling (Mingguang), Deling (Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty), and Siling (Emperor Yizong of the Ming Dynasty).

The main buildings include Yan 'en Gate, Yan' en Hall, Baocheng, Minglou and underground palace. Covering an area of 182000 square meters. It is the only tomb in the Ming Tombs that has been excavated. The Dingling Underground Palace is available for tourists to visit.

There are a two-pillar archway gate (Lingxing Gate) and a set of stone feasts along the central axis in the courtyard. The two pillars of the archway gate are made in head form, carved in white and square in cross-section, carved with a sitting dragon on the top, and the front and back berms are surrounded by stones to hold the drum. The stone table consists of a stone offering table and a stone offering vessel. The stone supply table is in the Shumizuo style, and the stone supply container consists of an incense burner (one), a candlestick (two), and a vase (two).

Construction of Dingling began as early as the lifetime of Emperor Wanli. Construction started in the 12th year of Wanli (AD 1584) and took 6 years to complete, consuming 8 million taels of silver. The emperor was only 28 years old when the tomb was built and was not officially opened until 1620. Ding Mausoleum became one of the three largest cemeteries in the Ming Tombs. Its ground buildings cover a total of 180,000 square meters. There are broad courtyards in front of it and a tall Baocheng behind it. In front of the main entrance of the mausoleum is the three-soldier white jade stone bridge. Across the bridge is a tall stele pavilion. There are more than 300 buildings around the pavilion, including temples and sacrificial halls, animal slaughter pavilions, and Dingling prisons. Behind it is the outermost wall of the cemetery-Wailuo City (the wall outside the wall).

Ding Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty is the tomb of Zhu Yijun (year name Wanli), the thirteenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty. His two queens are also buried here. The mausoleum is located at the foot of Dayu Mountain, southwest of Changling. It was built from 1584 to 1590 (from the 12th year of Wanli to the 18th year of Wanli). The main buildings include Yan 'en Gate, Yan' en Hall, Baocheng, Minglou and underground palace. Covering an area of 182000 square meters. It is the only tomb in the Ming Tombs that has been excavated. The Dingling Underground Palace is available for tourists to visit. The underground palace of Dingling is entirely made of stone, mostly bluestone, with an area of 1195 square meters. There are no beams inside, but it is a stone arch, which is quite tall. There are seven 4-ton white marble stone doors in the underground palace, which are cleverly designed and flexible in opening and closing. The underground palace is divided into the main hall, the auxiliary hall, and the front hall, which is exactly the same as the above-ground buildings. The central hall is displayed in its original state. There are three white marble stone seats there. In front of each seat, there are a set of five yellow glaze offerings and a large blue and white porcelain jar. The jar was originally filled with lamp oil for lighting lamps. On the coffin bed in the back hall are the coffins of Zhu Xujun and two empresses. Next to the coffins are 26 red-painted wooden boxes filled with funeral objects.

The overall layout of the mausoleum also has a round shape at the front and back. On the periphery is a "Wailuo City" that includes Baocheng and Baocheng Front Courtyard. Within Wailuo City, the rear part is Baocheng. Before Baocheng, there was a three-square courtyard in Wailuo City.

In the mid-1950s, there was a wave of archaeological craze in mainland China. Some archaeological experts proposed to the central government to dig several imperial tombs for research, and experts quickly targeted Dingling, the tomb of Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun. The central government agreed to the archaeological excavation of Dingling, but when the imperial tomb was dug up in 1956, a series of bizarre incidents followed one after another...
Many of those who directly participated in the excavation of Dingling later suffered very bad conditions, and some did not even have a good end. It is known that Wu Han, deputy mayor of Beijing City, who advocated the excavation, had his family destroyed and died. He eventually committed suicide in prison. His hair was plucked out before he died. This is all known to everyone. Zheng Zhenduo, who served as the excavation commander, died in a plane crash while visiting Afghanistan and the United Arab Republic in 1958; the photographer Liu De 'an, who was insane when the coffin was opened, and hung himself; Bai Wanyu, an archaeological expert who participated in the excavation, was unconscious in his later years and died of cerebral hemorrhage...

However, due to backward technical level, excavation is easy but difficult to protect, and many rare treasures have been irreparably damaged. Zheng Zhenduo, then director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Mr. Xia Nai, deputy director, immediately wrote to the State Council requesting that the application for excavation of the imperial tomb be immediately stopped. Premier Zhou Enlai approved the application.

"After the excavation of Dingling, we came to the conclusion that the tomb of emperors cannot be dug casually." said Wang Zhongshu, a famous Chinese archaeologist who participated in the archaeological exploration of Dingling.

Since the tunnel door of Baocheng is located in the right front of the Baocheng City Wall, after the coffin of the emperor and empress holds the "soothing ceremony" in the Hall of Sacrifice (Hall of Grace), it must pass through the tunnel door in Wailuo City that can enter Baocheng and enter the Xuan Palace. At the same time, considering the symmetry of the architectural design, there are also wall-type Ye doors symmetrically arranged on the left and right walls of the third entrance courtyard.

The excavation of Dingling was definitely a wrong decision. At that time, the country was still poor, and it was impossible to allocate a large amount of budget to preserve these cultural relics. Many precious cultural relics were even packed in cartons and piled in the storage room of the research institute for several years. Many silk fabrics that are easy to carbonize were randomly packed in boxes and taken out. As a result, they were soon blackened and turned into a pile of debris. At that time, many staff members were non-professional. Some precious porcelain was picked up and played with in their hands, and many of them were accidentally damaged. Many paper classics had no chance to see the light of day again because they were not preserved properly. They quickly turned to ashes. The bones and coffin of Emperor Wanli were not spared, so it is inconvenient to say what happened here. It can be said that the excavation of Dingling is a major tragedy in the history of Chinese archaeology.

Fortunately, after the excavation of Dingling Mausoleum, relevant state departments realized that we did not currently have the conditions to excavate the emperor's tomb. Later, Guo Moruo and others proposed a plan to excavate the Qianling Mausoleum (the joint burial tomb of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, Li Zhi and Wu Zetian), which was rejected by Premier Zhou. The country has also set an iron rule in the archaeological community, and it will never be allowed to easily excavate imperial tombs from now on.