First morning on the Yangtze River. 170 km downstream from Chongqing, where we started the previous evening, the boat moored opposite the new city of Fengdu, which has recently been moved across the river! Click to see a large image.
The Yangtze is some 6,300 km long, the third longest river in the world, and it is very muddy, as you can see here in our photo from top of the "Abode of Ghosts". Click for a large image.
The cable car comes down from the City of Ghosts. On the other side of the Yangtze is the new Fengdu, of over 150,000 people, moved there from the site just to the left. The flat green area on this side of the river, with a few roads, is where the old town of Fengdu was demolished and is now overgrown with weeds. In a year or so, it will be flooded and the entire flat area will disappear when the Three Gorges Dam, hundreds of miles downstream, raises the water level another 30 meters. Click to see a larger image.
This is Tianzi, the ruler of the afterworld, on a hillside covered with temples, shines and waxworks that show some of the nastier parts of hell, including some graphic examples of tortures that sinners can expect there. A very colorful collection of temples, as you can see from the photos below. Our local guide Bonnie made it all very interesting. Click to see a larger image.
The hill is covered with temples, first a set mixing all the Chinese religions, and then the actual "City of Ghosts" above. This is "Old China" ... go to the bottom of this page to see a sharp contrast, "New China". Click to see a larger image.
The first set of temples covers all the religions, this one, obviously, Buddhist. Click to see a large image.
There are temples of every kind on the hill. This one was guarded by a couple of lions. Click for a large image.
The next was a Confucian temple. Click to see a large image.
Lots of lions guard a lot of temples. Click for a large image.
The temple of the afterworld. In the entrance, there are some big guards on both sides. Click to see a larger image.
The next was a Confucian temple. Click to see a large image.
An ancient temple? A modern cable car entrance? ... Click for a large image.
A Pagoda, top of Fengdu, looks over the Yangtze river, see photos above. Click to see a large image.
A serpent guards the guards ... Click for a large image.
All temples photographed above are hidden in this hill. The pagoda photographed above is near the top of the hill. When the water rises more, it will go close to the top of the cemented areas. And, now, our floating, air-conditioned hotel is about to serve lunch as we say goodbye to the old temple complex. Our Victoria boat looked pretty much like the one you see in this photo. Our suite was on the third floor. There was a big dining room on the ground floor, a bar, internet, haircut, massage, doctor, etc on the 4th floor and our fancy dining room on the 5th floor, plus a large open air deck. There were glass walled lifts on both sides of the ship and various small souvenir shops scattered around. Our charming waiter and waitress, barmen, the cleaning guy, all called us by our first names ... either to be nice or to earn larger tips. Click to see a larger image.
We left the old temples of the "City of Ghosts", the old China, and as we were about to go to a fancy lunch upstairs, here greets us "New China", yet another motorway bridge under construction, photo from our suite. We saw many brand new bridges, either just finished, or under construction. Click to see a larger image ...
