August 27, 2008

Sitting on the Victoria Anna on the Yangtze River after just visiting Feishang, the City of Ghosts by climbing 130 steps up the bank of the river and then taking a funicular to the top instead of climbing another 500 steps. It is called this because the Buddhists believe that you go to hell (everyone) first and if you have been good during your lifetime to emerge to the City of Ghosts. If you have been bad you remain in hell for 500 years where you are tortured and then emerge in the City of Ghosts. Perhaps the most memorable thing so far in the trip was a Buddhist inscription on the side of the Temple of Heaven which read “Only kindness brings peace”. This phrase mellows me out and makes me happier. Perhaps the most depressing aspect of visiting Feishang was hearing the tour guide say that much of the temple had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. She said this was done because Chairman Mao only wanted himself and not the old gods to be revered. The same answer was given by Reeves in Beijing when he was asked why so many temples and their artifacts were destroyed there as well. Just looked out my window of my suite (we were given this as an upgrade purely by chance)and saw a beautiful pagoda on a hill. The government moved the entire city of Feishang from one side of the river to the other where you see a city with numerous high rise buildings sitting on the side of the opposite bank. The river will rise approximately another 50 meters and has already covered the entire old city of Feishang under water. We learned this when we asked one of the tour guides on the steps up to Feishang where the old city was and he pointed underwater. I said you will have to get out the fins to visit your ancestors but I am not sure he understood me.