Fengdu City of Ghosts

The steps before The Steps

Our Riverboat Home

Docking at Fengdu

When I watched us arrive at our first port from our balcony I was sure we were running into the boat next to us. Never having been on a riverboat cruise before, docking was a new experience.  Since a riverboat was already docked , Victoria tied up to her and we departed for our tour by walking through that boat to shore.

Our guide explained that the Chinese come here to Ghost City to get their next life and to remember the way after life.  No one wants to go the wrong way.  This city was originally built during the Ming Dynasty 500 years ago.   She warned us there were 170 steps to the top of the mountain and that would be the most difficult part of the journey.

We stopped in front of Hen and Hap…I’m quite sure that is not the correct spelling but that is what it sounded like to these untrained ears. If we said their name loudly they would protect us inside the city so that ghosts wouldn’t follow us out. 

On the way up we passed a few interesting statutes. For parents who were seeking helping with their troublesome children, there is a statute of a boy being spanked. It is said if you touch the boys behind then your troubles with your own children will lessen.

Then there was a stone goddess who trapped men with her charms. They evidently became a part of the statute.

At the top were 3 Naihe bridges. The first only allowed good people to cross. If you were not good you would fall into the stream below that contained vipers. Fortunately we all made it. The two other bridges were a choice, either longevity or wealth.  If you choose the longevity bridge it is said you would have a long life. If you chose the wealth bridge you would receive riches.  We choose the longevity bridge so we could go on a lot more cruises.  It did nothing for my cold though.

Another bridge was the marriage bridge…if you wanted to stay married to each other in the next life you held hands and crossed together. Otherwise you could cross on the single bridge. We choose to stay together.

A third test was ascending a set of stairs in one breath. If you made it you would be granted a long life.

I Made It!

Buddhists believe in reincarnation, Taoists immortality.  Everything has a god. This is a hard concept for westerners to grasp.  There was a God of Heaven who is number one, but then she showed us the God of Hell and said he was the one who decided whether you went to heaven or hell, which seems like a pretty  important position.

I took way too many pictures to post them all here. Should I ever figure out how to do so, I may be able to load them to facebook. Or maybe here. But its now 12:32 AM and I think I have been doing this one simple page for about 2 hours. I may need a class in remedial blogging.