People often say that in autumn, Nanjing will become Jinling. Indeed, Nanjing has Qixia Mountain with red leaves on its slopes, maple trees from Zhongshan Botanical Garden, more than 2000 acres of red maple forest in Gaochun International Slow City, and Meiling Palace in Zhongshan Scenic Area. But the official start of Nanjing's gorgeous autumn scenery is the Stone Elephant Road of the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, which is known as "the most beautiful 600 meters in Nanjing in autumn."

Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is located at the southern foot of Zijin Mountain in Xuanwu District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. To the east is Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, and to the south is "Meihua Mountain", a good place to admire plum blossoms in Nanjing in spring. The Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty was the joint burial tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and his queen Ma. Because the posthumous title of Queen Ma was "Empress Xiaoci Gao", its descendants named it "Xiaoling". The entire Ming Xiao Mausoleum covers an area of 1.7 square kilometers and is one of the largest imperial tombs in the country.

To enter the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, you need to pass through a road called the "Shinto", which is the first section of the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum. Because this 615-meter-long "Shinto" has six kinds of stone beasts carved from a whole piece of rock, including stone lions, stone haezhi, stone camels, stone elephants, stone unicorns, and stone horses, arranged on both sides. Among them, a pair of stone elephants is the heaviest, and a single stone elephant weighs 80 tons. Therefore, later generations called this "Shinto" the "Stone Elephant Road".

These simple and simple stone beasts are all carved by craftsmen using a single boulder. The lines of the stone beast are smooth and round, marking the sublime of the imperial tomb. It is said that there were no large-scale transportation equipment back then. These huge rocks were splashed with water and ice on the ground in winter, and then used logs to make rollers on the ice surface to move step by step to the edge of the "Shinto".

The current Shixiang Road is also the only way to enter the core area of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum. A total of more than 200 color-leafed trees have been planted on both sides of Shixiang Road, mainly evergreen juniper, beech trees, sweet gum, Chinese tallow, etc. that can change color in autumn. In the 1970s, nearly a hundred ginkgo trees were planted at the western end of Shixiang Road, thus creating the beautiful autumn scenery that people see today.

Autumn comes late in the south of the Yangtze River, but the Shixiang Road located in Zijin Mountain is the first place in Nanjing where an atmosphere of beautiful autumn scenery is formed. Starting from late October every year, Shixiang Road begins to have yellow leaves, then red leaves, and then ginkgo leaves fall with the wind. A colorful world of gold, yellow, orange, red, green, etc. has been formed. The 24 white stone beasts on the stone elephant road are quietly lying in the colors. The most beautiful 600 meters is truly worthy of its reputation.

This was not how the Stone Elephant Road used to be. In the 31st year of Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1398), after Zhu Yuanzhang was buried in the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, in order to protect the place, the Ming regime specially established two internal and external functional agencies to protect the mausoleum-the Jingshen Supervisor and the Xiaoling Guard. The former was responsible for the daily management of the Xiaoling Mausoleum, and the latter was the protective guard. In Nanjing City today, there is also the place name "Xiaoling Wei".

By the time of the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, almost all the trees around the Xiaoling Mausoleum in the Ming Dynasty were cut down. The wood of the Xiaoling Mausoleum was sold at a low price along the street. There was also a saying among the people: "The emperor was too poor. He was so poor that he had to make a living by cutting down and selling the trees on the graves of his ancestors." The first batch of artificially planted trees on Shixiang Road was in the Republic of China. It is said that only nearly 200 sycamore trees were planted at that time, and many died later due to improper maintenance.

Nowadays, the trees on both sides of Shixiang Road were basically planted after the founding of the People's Republic of China. When planting trees back then, calculations were also made. The distance between each tree was about 2.8 meters. Because we had to consider the fully extended area of the canopy after the trees were long, and we also had to consider the distance between the trees and the 24 huge stone beasts. The spacing between the trees was so regular that the most beautiful 600-meter landscape today was formed.

The most beautiful autumn scenery on Shixiang Road is like a palette left by God in the world. Regardless of your imagination, you can always change into rich colors. Starting this week, the autumn scenery of Shixiang Road has entered the best viewing period, with the richest colors. Roughly until the end of this month, with the fall of ginkgo leaves, the curtain of autumn slowly began. It only takes ten days to see the most beautiful 600 meters.

To enter Shixiang Road, you need to buy a 70-yuan ticket to the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum. Although most tourists only go for the most beautiful 600 meters, they rarely pay attention to Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum. Looking at the scenery alone, more than 10 yuan and a hundred meters is indeed a bit expensive. However, we still can't resist people's desire for beauty. If we want to take a beautiful autumn photo on the Stone Elephant Road, we will find that the photos are all people following the crowd. About the author: Photography by Lu Jianhua (photographer, traveler, self-media person)