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Walking the Sacred Way at Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, Nanjing. These silent stone guardians have watched over the tomb of the Hongwu Emperor the founder of the Ming dynasty for more than 600 years, through fire, war, and the passage of time. The Spirit Path (Shendao) stretches nearly 1.2miles/1.8 km and is lined with 24 large stone animals (lions, xiezhi, camels, elephants, qilin, and horses one standing and one kneeling in each pair) plus stone figures of civil and military officials. All carved from single blocks of stone, they served as eternal protectors and symbols of the emperor’s power and the empire’s reach. Though damaged during the fall of the Ming and later conflicts, the statues have survived remarkably intact thanks to major restorations. . Today, as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties,” they remain a breathtaking testament to the grandeur of China’s early Ming dynasty.

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