Fengdu’s Changing Scenery.docVIP

Fengdu’s Changing Scenery 　　THE town of Fengdu sits on the banks of the Yangtze River, about 150 km downstream from Chongqing. Seen from the oppo-site bank, the town is an island of whitehigh-rises, oddly without the suburbansprawl usually associated with thesekinds of urban areas. 　　Fengdu is one of the counties that havebeen affected by the rising water levels ofthe Yangtze River brought about by theThree Gorges Dam, and these buildingsare the results of investment to assuresuccessful relocation of displaced citizens.You might assume that housing projectsof this kind, built on such a large scaleover a relatively short period of time,would seem impersonal and lead to a lostsense of community, but this is far fromthe truth. 　　Close too, the streets are vibrant andbustling with people. In a square nearthe center of town residents from everygeneration gather to dance and socializewhen night falls and the summer heatfades, or during the cool of the morning.Along the pedestrian street that runs bythe river people walk and roller skateand children buy helium filled balloonsfrom vendors, while closer to the rivercouples, families, and groups of friendsstroll or sit on the steep banks and watchthe river. 　　At night the view across the Yang-tze yields little but a handful of solitarylights and the silhouette of steep hills.Here, in the Mingshan Mountain ScenicArea, lies the Ghost City, a Daoist templethrough which all souls eventually passto be judged by the Emperor of the Neth-er World. Those who have led sinful anddebauched lives are sent down to hell,where inmates are tortured in a variety ofgruesome ways illustrated by the woodenfigurines that decorate temple. 　　Southeast from the town you can de-scend into the bowls of the earth to ex-plore the Snow Jade Cave, but the cave,with its pure white rocks that sparklewith crystals, is far from hellish. Narrowcorridors that were once below sea levelconnect caverns full of a spectacular ar-ray of streams, subterranean