during several dynasties of the imperial china, the pathway to the burial mound of an emperor or a high dignitary would be lined with the statues of real and fantastic animals and of the civil and military officials, and would be known as the "shendao" (spirit way) at major imperial mausolea, such as ming xiaoling in nanjing or the ming dynasty tombs near beijing, the spirit way could be several hundreds of meters, sometimes over a kilometer, long.