The Underground Palace 
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The excavation started in May 1956 and was finished in July 1958. A spiralling "staircase of 160 steps leads down to the Underground Palace. Those who find it inconvenient to take so many steps down may walk slowly back to the coach.
Front Chamber
The stone gate is made of marble, 2.3 metres high and 1.7 metres wide. Each door slab weighs 4 tons. On it are 81 round studs and a door ring carved with the facial design of a mythological guardian known as Pushou. The door slab is thicker at the hinges, 40 centimetres, but tapers off toward the middle, thus lessening the weight and relieving pressure on the pivots. This makes the whole thing easy to open. To secure the huge stone gate, a bronze crossbeam weighing about 10 tons was installed on the top.
The stone block, known as "self-acting stone," is a slab to shut the gate from behind. It is 1.6 metres high, and a little wider at the two ends carved with lotus petal design. When the stone gate is closed, the lower end of the slab is fitted into a hole cut into the ground while its upper end leans against the back of the gate. You can't open from outside. To open the gate, the people doing excavation work fitted in a wire through the 4 centimetres wide gap between the two door slabs, turned it around to hold the stone block and then pushed back the block with a plank. The stone gate was thus opened. The first stone block bears ink-writing in regular script: "The self-acting stones of seven gates in the palace are not yet tested. "Hence the name "self-acting stone."
Middle Chamber
In the front part of the middle chamber stand two marble thrones, both carved with phoenix heads on their arms. They were for Empress Xiaoduan and Empress Xiaojing. Further down the chamber, there is another marble throne carved with dragonhead design on the back and on its arms. That was for Emperor Wanli.
In front of each throne are five glazed pottery altarpieces: an incense burner, two candlesticks and two beakers, and a blue and white porcelain jar with a cloud and dragon design. The jars were originally filled with sesame oil and had each a coper tube'with a wick inside. It is called "Everlasting Lamp," lit when the coffins were brought in. After the tomb was covered up, the light naturally went out due to lack of oxygen.
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The rear chamber is 30.1 metres long, 9.1 metres wide and 9.5 metres high. The floor is paved with polished porphyritic rocks. In the middle of the platform is placed the coffin of the emperor. On its left is the coffin of his first wife, Empress Xiaoduan. On its right is the coffin of Empress Xiaojing. Her title was conferred posthumously. The emperor died in July 1620 and his first wife died in April the same year. His second wife died eight years before and was buried at the East Pit--a burial ground reserved for imperial concubines. When the emperor and Empress Xiaoduan were buried, the coffin of Empress Xiaojing was moved here from the East Pit to join them. Around the three coffins are 26 red-lacquered chests containing the funerary objects and some pieces of uncut jade. Sandalwood and blue and white porcelain vases have been taken away. The historical relics are now put on display after sorting and cleaning.
The original coffins and chests already decayed. The ones you see here are reproductions. More than 3,000 artifacts were exhumed (unearthed) from the tomb.
The charts and pictures on the walls show the amount of money and labour spent on construction, sixty five million man days were spent, with 30,000 people working everyday.
A span of six years and 8 million taels of silver were spent. That amount would have been enough to feed one million peasants for six years and a half.
Left and Right Annex Chambers
The left and right annex chambers are two symmetrical structures. Each is 26 metres long, 7.1 metres wide and 7.4 metres high. In the middle of each chamber close to the wall is a coffin platform, which is framed with white marble and paved with "Gold Bricks." Right in the centre is a square hole filled with loess linking the coffin with the ground. It is known as "Gold Well." There is an old Chinese saying：buried with jade on a "Gold Well. " The "Gold Well" refers to the square hole, and the jade was supposed to have the power to prevent the body from decomposing. That's why uncut jade was found around the coffin, as you saw in the rear chamber. To the west of the platform are the entrance and a section of the underground passage. According to the Ming funerary institution, the coffins of the empresses were to be brought in through the left and fight passages and placed on the platforms. When the Underground Palace was opened up in 1958, these two annex chambers were empty. The coffin of the emperor and those of the empresses as well as funerary objects were all kept in the rear chamber. Presumably there was not enough time to open up the passages leading to the annex chambers. All the three coffins were brought in through the front entrance. But the doorways of the annex chambers were too narrow, so they could only be placed in the rear chamber.
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