Well this is the best review I can give. It is based on the 15 minutes during which I was given a dull tour of a few reconstructed buildings. From speaking to other later this seems to be the general experience of visiting this complex on the combined 'Ming Tombs and Great Wall' tours offered from Beijing. I managed to see about 5 buildings and caught glimpses of some stone statues and that was about it. We spent about 5 minutes looking at some plastic food set out like a royal feast, there was a dummy of an Emperor then we were whisked out. I later found out this was the Changling tomb which seems to be the highlight of the area.

Our tour guide seemed genuinely miffed that we wanted to see some more, and did sincerely seem to believe that we would spend our time better in the Pearl factory, Tea factory and Jade factory that took up more of the day trip than the actual sites. I know he was receiving commission at these factories but even factoring that in there was little regard shown for this site.

If you have an actual interest in this site then try to get there under your own steam rather than as a stop on a Great Wall tour. As for me, I would have liked to have seen the spirit way but I don't think I will be rushing back, as from what I have read the mediocre offerings I saw actually were the highlights. Perhaps next time I am in this area I will head to some of the other tomb clusters to get a better feel for them.

As for this trip the best I can say is that at least I have something to add to my category of 'Worst WHS visits'.

[Site 2: Experience 1]