Ghost Town, China Style

    Sunday, March 25
Ghost Town, Chinese Style

    Fengdu          

After a night of sailing, we found ourselves docked at the old town of Fengdu. The ancient town was mostly submerged because of the Three Gorges Dam and the new relocated town was constructed on the opposite bank. The mountain side on which we disembarked holds a so-called ghost town filled with steep passages and temples built by the Buddhists, Taoists and other sects who all believed that every person 's spirit in the whole world comes to this spot for judgment. There are hundreds of statues of gods plus Buddha and his “disciples”. The guide was just a bit off on the number of steps.... the number 150 was mentioned and we climbed that many to just get from the boat ramp to the road where the golf carts  ferried us to the market at the foot of the steep hill leading to the actual “ghost town”.

Entrance to Fengdu

Our boat from the shore

Broken escalator!

 Obviously, if you were consumed with bad habits and visited the temple signifying the tortures of hell, you would quickly change your ways. The depictions were graphic and frightening complete with large figures painted blue and having bodies of humans and heads of animals. The donkey/person was reminiscing of “Mid Summer’s Night Dream” though here was a definite nightmare.

Children mind your parents statue

Demon from Hell

Lots of golden statues

The disciples

Luckily the way down was much easier than the way up and the market, a clean bathroom with “sit downs”, and a cool beer awaited us, which made the trip back to the boat palatable.

After a sumptuous lunch onboard, we had Mah Jong lessons. The game is similar to Mexican dominoes but with incomprehensible Chinese script. I think I got the basics and can locate the rules on the Internet but it can't take the place of mindless Bunco for me. 




This is a game of some strategy and would preclude eating and drinking alcohol during the game! How could that be all good?

The Captain's Farewell dinner was held that evening which simply meant that instead of buffet, the same types of food were placed on lazy susans at the tables but it did provide a chance to dress up a bit and the wait staff looked quite festive in their Chinese clothes. The food on the cruise has been both western and Chinese and every dish was good.  There were giggles of delight from some of the Smart People when the hamburgers were available at one lunch buffet.

Festive Servers

Lovely sunset as we sailed on....