Ghost City-Fengdu

Here we are leaving the ship to come on shore to visit
the "Ghost City" of Fengdu

To save us a few steps, they carried us a little closer to the mountain,
and the steps up to the city.

These are just a few of the stairs that led up to
the city...ugh

And this is the first set of buildings that we came to.  They are the
typical Chinese architecture...lots of curves and colors.  This was a
Buddhist shrine with several of them inside.

Here are several of the buddhas...they have many, one for every situation
or need.  These have been restored, that is why they look so new.

On another path, that lead farther up the hill, these statues lined
the walkway, each one more gruesome than the last.

These statues are part of the ghost legend.  They are
supposed to frighten away the evil spirits that
the ancient people believed lived here.  There were
lots of these sculptures..and here I am with my best
scary face!

I am back in the country now.  We had a great time.
I was not able to blog while there however.  So, my son
in law agreed to do a few posts of the pics I could send him.
I was without internet access at times, but the Chinese
gov't blocks Blogger.  They do not allow access to sites where
people can express their opinion or make statements.  This was
just one small evidence of the Communist control.  The people,
however, didn't seem to let any of that bother them...it is all they have
ever known.  Interesting...
I will post a few more of the interesting things we saw, and
continue to work on finishing up my travel sketchbook.

Thanks!
sheltongail@hotmail.com