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Wednesday - 23 May - The cruise ship contined
upstream during the night, passing by important ancient cities such as
Baidicheng andWanxian and the unusual Lanruo Dian temple at Shibaozhai (The
Stone Treasure Stronghold. All of these towns have interesting medieval temples
and buildings worth visiting, but there is no time during this cruise. The ship
docked during the night at Fengdu - the
'Ghost city' much of which is already destroyed and much already under water as
the river rises. But a new theme park incorporating the medieval temples and
many tourist shops has been built high on the mountain side. We are up at 0545
and have breakfast after 0620 - receive email message from Petra. At 0810 we
depart by bus for the very short trip up hill to the entrance to Fengdu park.
First we must walk across pontoons to reach the shore and then up rock steps to
the road level. The road passes through a large area of ruined foundations, all
that is left of the old city. The main Fengdu city now is on the other bank of
the Yangtze - this side is only the 'ghost city' theme park. As always there
are rows of shops and stalls along the street to the entrance gate. The temples
are built in two sections, left and right of a side canyon. In the center on a
high mountain is a huge bust. The section on the right is high up and a chair
lift is provided to spare visitors the 250 stairs. This is the Ming Mountain
with its Temple to the King of the underworld, Tianzi. The section on the left
is reached by a bridge and fewer steps. This is the Shuang gui Mountain with a
palace at the top and the Fengdu Confucian temple and Sugong Temple. All this
is new construction paid for by investors to cater to tourist traffic. But then
one discovers that it is built in several sections with many steps between them
before one reaches the uppermost temple.This section passes through a
succession of gates, past temples and shops. It is crowded, but I don't see
anyone but Chinese here. All our tour group have taken the chair lift to the
other section. There are many 'guardian' statues and perhaps deities, but I
don't know if these are Taoist of Buddhist religous figures. Back on board the
Victoria Cruise ship we have a big American lunch of hamburgers and french
fries, chicken curry, beef, beans, hot vegetables, fruit and excellent
puddingcream desert. We pass Fulong, a huge city at the confluence of the Wu
River and Yangtze. Today there are lessons in Maijong and lectures on the
river. During the afternoon we are invited to the bridge to visit the captain
and observe the 4 duty officers on the control deck. They have radar and GPS
and the usual controls. A very heavy thunderstorm passes at 1715. The river is
more brown with silt. Tonight is the fairwell banquet at 1900 for which every
one dresses more formally. The appertizers alone have 13 items. They are
followed by 6 main courses plus soup and desert and birthday cakes. (Well, it
is a few days early for me, but someone told the ship purser nevertheless.)
Then we receive a Chinese gift. During the night we dock at Chongqing at a
floating barge well away from shore and connected by a pontoon bridge. It is
raining heavily all night.
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