“Mortals get an end to their story; that is their birthright. But faiths of ancestors insist there’s an unknowable library just beyond that.” -Old Sean
Ghost City Overviews
There are two kinds of Ghost Cities in China. The first is sometimes seen on the news. The more infamous Ghost Cities of China are large urban areas resulting from Chinese over-development. These large, vacant neighborhoods were constructed, but never populated.
I’ve been to a couple Chinese Ghost Cities like this. They’re very fun to have nerf-gun battles in.
But there’s a second kind of Chinese Ghost City as well.
These are more like Afterlife Amuseument Parks. Much of China has semi-enforced secularism, though religions are recognized within the country. The result is rather odd: China has many places with clear religious overtones that are built specifically to make concepts of Heaven, Hell and the Afterlife seem more like cultural heritage or outright entertainment then the establishment of a faith.
Fengdu located to the East of Chongqing, fits this description.
Info on Visiting Fengdu
Fengdu is an actual, functioning Chinese city located on the banks of the Yangtze River. The city has impressive modern buildings, large park spaces and a rather nice train station.
However, across the river, citizens can see the Fengdu Ghost City on Ming Mountain. This mountain is covered in theme-park, Chinese-centric, Buddhist-influenced buildings, statues and artworks. The Ghost City is often full of tourists and abnormally friendly dogs.
Fengdu Ghost City is built in a place with legitimate cultural-otherworldly connotations. The site is referenced (there’s some debate) in Confucianism texts, Taoism scripts and Buddhist temple histories. The site has an alleged 2,000 years of history and has honorable mentions in Journey to the West.
Ming Mountain’s modern tourism features are divided into a “heaven” section above and a “hell” section below. However, this is fairly removed from Christian concepts, so the translation for these zones is more like “Celestial Above” and “Underworld Cycle.”
The Ghost City is built with parallel relation to Diyu (an umbrella term for Realm of the Cycling Dead) and Naraka (a temporary but very long period of purgatory where karma imbalances created during a bad life are corrected).
These are popular, decentralized concepts from Chinese mythology and Buddhism.
Historical Recent Religion
Chinese religion is treated more like mythological history, with many of the figures taking on Trojan-esque heroic and demonic attributes. Since China generally dislikes have operational religious hierarchies existing within its boarders, it downplays the plausibility of an afterlife.
However, Chinese mythological-religion is a vital part of Chinese culture. Following the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward, China has made concentrated and continuous efforts to define Chinese culture. This is to help create a more central and cohesive national identity.
Because of this, Chinese religious sites have a lot of mixed elements, based on what was governmentally-appropriate during the preservation or construction period. China is also so vast that culture aspects are cherry-picked from specific regions and applied in great artworks elsewhere.
The Fengdu Influences
While Fengdu Ghost City is a tourist attraction, the religious iconography the site displays offers relevant stories of Chinese mythology on actual religious-complex grounds.
The site of Ming Mountain was a meditation retreat for a pair of imperial officials named Yin Changsheng and Wang Fangping who practiced Taoism until gaining immortality. The fusion of their name, Yinwag, translates to “King of Hell”, implying Ming Mountain was an access point to a pseudo-underworld.
As such, the lower “Hell” section of the Fengdu Ghost City shows many temples and shrines with demons, reincarnated evils and people being punished for past misdeeds.
Exploring the Ghost City
Getting around the Ghost City takes a bit of time. Fengdu Ghost City and Ming Mountain were seperated from the actually city of Fengdu following the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. The risen-river now requires visitors to cross a bridge to the town.
Once across the river, Ming Mountain has a recreation of a Chinese traditional town at its base. This isn’t a part of the Ghost City, but an outer tourism zone district with many shops, snacks and treats.
Visiting Fengdu Ghost City involves a lot of hiking. The upper “Heaven” portion of the Ghost City is especially steep with many stairs. The entire park is accessible through either these stairs or a cable car.
Numerous statues and temples dot the entire complex. There are elaborate pillars with divine dragons snaking up the sides. Ceilings are decorated in amazing, pattered details. Enormous faces and limbs are worked into the side of the mountain itself. Peaceful marble statues stand poised in shaded areas. Traditional temples are often accented by flowering trees.
From far away, the Ghost City is easy to spot. Buildings and plazas emerge from a green incline and an actual, enormous imperial face gazes out into the river.
I spent quite a few hours exploring while steadily depleting my holstered water bottles.
A Passthrough Visiting Fengdu
Visiting Fengdu is nice, but odd. Chinese mythology has always escaped me, largely because it’s a vast, complex and well-preserved subject that defies easy categorization. Elements from other belief systems promoted by the Chinese government, such as Confucianism and Taoism, create strange changes depending on the specific area.
Overall, it was an interesting visit. I didn’t spend long visiting Fengdu, however. This was merely a pit-stop on my way to Xi’an.
So until then.
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Written April 17th, 2018
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