Three Gorges

Finally I left the big cities behind, as well the small cities of 9 million or so, and saw some beautiful countryside as I took a cruise on the Yangtze River through the Three Gorges region.

For years the Yangtze River slowed to a trickle in the dry season and flooded its banks in the wet season.  In a rather controversial project, the Chinese built a dam to generate electricity and stabilize shipping.  Again, the numbers are staggering.  At over a mile long, the Three Gorges Dam is the largest in the world.  When the dam was completed in 2012, it generated a full 10 percent of the electricity in China, although that number has gone down to two percent as China has increased its energy needs and built other dams. 

 

After the dam was built, low lying river towns ended up under 300 feet of water, and over 1.3 million people were displaced.  So they built entire new cities higher up the mountains with rows of identical looking high rise apartments.  Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, the people were not terribly disappointed to move.  On average, the old houses were 360 square feet, usually without electricity or toilets, and the new apartments are 1300 square feet with indoor plumbing.

While the dam is impressive, the scenery is the star here.  It was a lovely cruise down the river, culminating with 75 miles of the Three Gorges themselves.

As on any other cruise, we took daily excursions to local places of interest.  On the first day, we visited the Fengdu Ghost City, a rather bizarre temple on a hillside over the river.

Like many temples in China, the Fengdu Ghost City incorporated elements of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, but this one had one more element - folk beliefs that are over two thousand years old.  Chinese ghosts are a little different from western ones.  As far as I can tell, there is no element of haunting; rather, a ghost is simply a deceased person on his way to heaven or hell.  Also, unlike western ghosts portrayed as pale or even white, Chinese ghosts have darkened skin.  The temple in the Fengdu Ghost City has three "tests" that the ghosts must undergo to determine their destination.  Then there is a rather gruesome display of the kind of tortures that afflict those going to hell.

The interesting thing to me was how similar the concepts of heaven and hell, passage and judgment are to western concepts.  The gruesome display looks like Dante's inferno illustrated.  So I started to wonder ... while the Silk Road was in use as early as the second century, Marco Polo had his extended visit to China in the late 1200's, and Dante wrote the Inferno in the early 1300's.  So I see three possibilities:  Marco Polo brought the imagery of afterlife torture to Dante, some later Silk Road traveler brought the imagery of the Inferno to China, or the Chinese and Dante's imagery are remarkably similar but developed independently.  Hmmm.  Call me a skeptic but I do have trouble believing such an extraordinary coincidence.  Also, although the Ghost City is supposedly based on two thousand year old Chinese folk traditions, the buildings are all less than three hundred years old.  Some are considerably less - probably built in the 20th Century.   So I have to wonder:  did the Chinese really have 2,000 year old traditions of heaven and hell that parallel western traditions so neatly?  I am dubious but, as my father always said, never let the facts interfere with a good story.

The next day we visited the White Emperor City, a 2000 year old fortress (rebuilt a few times since then) that is now on an island thanks to the Three Gorges Dam.

Even with the higher water level of the river, you do have to climb a lot of stairs to reach the White Emperor City, but there is an alternative - the modern version of a Chinese sedan chair.

On our way back from the White Emperor City, we passed through a square where large groups of middle school students were rehearsing for the local celebration that will be held on the National Holiday.  Many of the students tried to talk to us in English and took photos with us.  And one more sign of China's cashless society.  

This sign was in the middle of the square, not in the parking lot.  Ubiquitous bar codes for payment and sedan lawn chairs if you don't feel like climbing stairs.  It is a rather odd juxtaposition.