Ghost City (Feng Du) and Ship Fun

We pulled into port at Fengdu (fang dew) so we could visit the Ghost City. I don't recall a lot about what was said. I do remember that the Ghost City is famous because of the temples the older dynasties built in order to worship both heaven and hell. That doesn't mean that hell was actually worshiped. Hell was given attention to because it was/is not a place most would like to spend eternity. Instead, in Buddhist culture, one walked a fine line between heaven and hell based on how they adhered to customs, beliefs, and folklore (my understanding, anyway). For instance, when walking into a temple, there is a threshold that ranges in height from a few inches to about two feet. Women must cross these thresholds by stepping over them with their right foot first while men must do the same except using their left foot first. The height of the thresholds were determined by the importance of the particular temple they were 'guarding'. The larger Buddhas usually have a higher threshold. Speaking of large Buddhas:

And please everyone, do not play your trumpet here in the park:

They also have statues all around that are related to Christianity and the ten commandments. Thou shalt not kill, covet thy neighbors wife, and so on. Here is one that relates to what happens if you do not listen to your parents:

People are encouraged to 'spank' the statue.

My batteries in the camera were dying so I could not take pictures of all the statues.

This picture show a hotel they are building that is roughly one mile away:

It's not real clear because I had to max out the zoom but you can see that there will be a Buddha's face on the front of it. Reminds me a bit of Mt. Rushmore and the ongoing construction in South Dakota of the Crazy Horse monument being carved out of the side of a hill.

We spent about three hours on this excursion. I had many more pictures but I couldn't remember what they were pictures of. I suppose I could have just put them up but without an explanation of each, it would have been like going on an art gallery excursion without an interpreter. OH WAIT! That's exactly what we were doing!

Tonight, we went to the bar/ballroom for a little show and some games. The staff did some dancing:

Since Eric and I were the only two westerners on board, we were picked out of the crowd to participate in all of the fun and games. No matter how hard we try, we stick out a little bit like albino pandas without round eyes. In any case, Eric tried to shake his booty with a box tied to his hind end. Inside the box were ping pong balls. There was a little hole on the bottom of the box for the ping pong balls to fall through into a basket. It was hilarious! Eric did poorly, ending up 3rd and winning a map of the Yangtze River. Here are a few shots:

I went up to play a version of a game on The Price Is Right. There were cards spread in rows on a board. I had to pick 4 cards and if I picked an ace of any suit, I would win a t-shirt. Well, the t-shirt is in my bag. I also won three beers to go with it and so I made three new friends in the crowd!

The night ended at about 11:30. We have to be up early tomorrow because we are approaching the gorges and we're going to go on another excursion where we will have to transfer two times to smaller and smaller boats. Tomorrow night we see the Three Gorges Dam. Hopefully it is lit up since it will be dark.

written by

akstoltzy on June 5, 2010 from Yichang, China

from the travel blog: China

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Great article! Buddha rules! Also great pics!

written by Milos on June 12, 2010

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