Can You See the Haitaiwang Stele 好太王碑 from Here?
I wasn’t expecting to be climbing here in Ji’an when I visited the ruins of the Koguryo kingdom. However, this UNESCO world heritage site is scattered across several sites including some mountainous areas. Even some of the archeological sites here are challenging to visit. Take the Taiwang Tomb for instance, to properly visit the Taiwang Tomb, you would need to climb the burial mound itself. It was the height of a small hill probably two or three stories high. I always have problems climbing stairs and China is probably the place where stairs abound, yes even on burial mounds.
Nice View from Atop the Taiwang Tomb 太王陵
The burial mound of the Taiwang isn’t really very interesting. It is essentially a very large pile of rocks which is typical of the Korguryo way of burying noblemen. Except that this one pile of rock is indeed quite huge. At the top of the burial mound one can see far into the distance. There isn’t much development here and there were still mountains nearby. The view was quite nice and I think Taiwang would agree. From here I can see just how far I needed to walk just to get here. I can barely make out the pavillion where the Haotaiwang Stele was kept. Who knew it was that far?
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