Thursday, April 10, 2014

Day 223 – Fengdu: Ghost City


We sailed through the night and docking was so smooth, that we were surprised to wake up and find that we were docked at Chongqing.  We had breakfast and then met our group that was going to Fengdu: Ghost City.  We had to walk across several pontoons that had planks set between them before we even got to the shore.  Then we walked up a pretty steep hill where we were put in 12 passenger golf carts for a ride up an even steeper hill. 
 
Crossing the pontoons with ramps across to the shore.  Notice the lack of railings...  It was a rainy morning and it just got worse. 
They had these for sale for a snack!!  YUUUUUMMMMYYYYYY!

The gate to Fengdu - Ghost City

Masks for sale.

This weekend, China is celebrating Ming Qing, so a trip to the Ghost city is appropriate.  The belief that you are made of two parts: a spirit and a body, is part of their beliefs and so the spirit, or ghost part, is not thought of as a scary thing.  Fengdu is to help people learn about the journey of life, living a good life and how not to go to a purgatory.  After the golf cart trip, we started climbing the first part of what would end up being over 175 steps.  Up, up we climbed, stopping at different places to have our guide explain what was being represented in different temples and by different statues. 
 
This guy guards the door to heaven.  He detects if you are evil and will snort at you if you are. 
This guy guarded the other gate and he would detect if you were educated or not.  Have to be educated to get to heaven.
This is a symbol of good luck.  The bats represent happiness in Chinese culture.


These are two of the three bridges that you pass over in life.  One if or health, one is for happiness and the other is for love.

In one of the pagodas.  David climbed while I stayed down.  I had hurt my leg and it was too painful to climb.

This is a test to see if you are a good husband,  If you could get this 400+ pound half-semicircle to balance on the knob, you would be a good husband in the ancient farming villages.

The have a guy who does this for a living.  You give him a tip afterward so he can feed his family.  Probably makes a pretty good living when you consider all the times he probably does this in a day and all the people in China that come to see it done.


We continued climbing for the next two hours until we had reached the top pagoda and then we took the “short cut” down the hill back to the golf cart and then back down to the dock and then back over the pontoons to the boat.

We had a fun group to chat with at lunch and then it was naptime.  Today was very rainy and it just seemed to get worse as the day went on.  The scenery is all shrouded in mist and rain, so there wasn’t much to look at as the boat passed by, but we tried.

About 4:30, we docked at Shi Bao Zhai Pagoda and again crossed the pontoons and ramps to the shore.  Up that hill we climbed and climbed.  They had people who offered to take you up in a sedan chair (two people take you up the mountain while you sit in a chair for 40 Yuan), but we chose to walk.  I think it was best for my leg with the cramp to keep it moving and limber, so long as I walked carefully.

We walked through the village and all the venders to then walk across a “swinging” bridge to the island where the Shi Bao Zhai Pagoda was located.  This was amazing to see and we could have walked up the twelve stories to the top and then followed a winding path back down the mountain, but we opted for the less crowded way and that was to walk around the mountain and then back across the bridge.  The bridge was a little unnerving to walk on with the swaying and trying to keep your balance.
 
Walking across the swinging bridge to the Shi Bao Zhai Pagoda.  It was rather nerve-wracking with all the people on it.  You could feel it waving back and forth,  The rain didn't help either.

A view of the bridge from the safe side...

Shi Bao Zhai Pagoda.  Built right into the rock.


After we were back on the boat, we had about a half hour to wait for dinner.  This was the captain’s dinner, so we all had a glass of wine at our tables.  Marvin protested for us about the wine, but he was told that it was just there for the ceremony to toast the captain and the voyage. 


Tonight they had entertainment provided by the ships crew.  It was loud and not very entertaining, but we stayed for lack of anything else to do.  Hoping for a good rest tonight.

1 comment:

Carolyn said...

I think the mist was added, at no cost, to make the 'atmosphere' right for the GHOST city.

Those masks looked cool!

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