Chang Ling - Yongle Tomb 3 - Hall of Eminent Favour
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Zhu Di died while on one of his military expeditions inside the Northern Territories, China's frontier with the Northern and Western Tribes. His body would be returned to Beijing after which a grandiose imperial burial procession carried it to its Final Resting Place, the already completed Mausoleum for the Emperor, Chang Ling, at what is now known as the Ming Tombs Valley.
The Ming Tombs Valley was especially selected for its Feng Shui caracteristics. After the completion of the Imperial Palace and Tiantan, the Yongle Emperor ordered the construction of his Mausoleum and a Valley to the North of the Capital of Beijing was selected.
Buried with Zhu Di Emperor Yongle are 30 so called "Maids of Honor". The Ladies were treated to a grandiose banquet, a last meal. They were then led into the the Tomb ----->
and forced to stand on a wooden bed, with ropes tied around their necks. After some religious and shamanic ritual, the sacrificial "Maidens of Honor" were then executed by pulling the bed from underneath the group, resulting in a miserable death of slow strangulation. Both the body of Zhu Di and the group of maidens still remain isde their original Tomb.
