From Shanghai: Nanjing Ming Palace & Xiaoling Private Tour

Private day trip from Shanghai: walk the Ming Palace that Beijing's Forbidden City was copied from, Emperor Zhu's tomb at Xiaoling, then Laomendong's craft lanes.
**【Two Forbidden Cities, 40 years apart. You've heard of the one in Beijing. Almost nobody visits the one that came first.】**

Begin your day with a pickup from your Shanghai hotel and board a 90-minute bullet train to Nanjing. Arrive at the ruins of the Ming Palace, built by Zhu Yuanzhang in 1366. At its peak, it covered more than one million square meters and was considered the greatest palace in the world.

Walk its stone spine with your guide, passing the Meridian Gate platform, the bases of the three great halls, the inner Golden Water River with its five bridges, and the surviving marble column drums and carved chi-dragon plinths. Learn how the Nanjing plan was built by filling in a lake and why the Ming kept their ancestral capital standing for a century after the court moved north.

Next, climb Purple Mountain to Ming Xiaoling, the tomb Zhu Yuanzhang chose for himself. Walk the 615-meter Spirit Path, past paired stone elephants, camels, lions, xiezhi, and horses, past the stone officials and warriors, to the Soul Tower and the vast burial mound where Zhu and his empress Ma lie.

Finally, visit Laomendong, the old lanes east of Zhonghua Gate, which kept its Ming street grid. See Ming wells still in use, the brick base of the old city wall beneath your feet, and, as the light drops, red lanterns strung under the tiled eaves. Stop at a lane-side counter for a bowl of sweet osmanthus rice or a sesame pastry.

Om de beschikbaarheid te garanderen, dient u zo snel mogelijk te reserveren. Vroegboekkorting is het overwegen waard, vooral als u de reis plant tijdens het hoogseizoen, zoals op feestdagen of in het weekend.

Deze excursie kunt u kosteloos annuleren tot: annuleringstijd voor aanvang van de reis. Bij annulering na: annulering na: annuleringstijd of niet aanwezig zijn op de excursie wordt de volledige prijs van de activiteit alsnog in rekening gebracht. Te laat komen bij het ophalen of vertrekken wordt beschouwd als niet komen opdagen.