Will You Pass the Test?

November 22, 2011

Ghost Town. One of the first stops along the Yangtze River was the Fengdu Ghost Town, a town that spirits retreat to before finding out their fate with the Hell Emperor. This town has several tests that one needs to pass in order to be considered a person who has led a good life. If these little challenges aren’t passed, you are a sinner and will be tortured until you find out your reincarnation status. Some tests include:

The Bridge Test. There are three bridges in the ghost town. You first have to walk over the middle bridge. If you are a good person, you will walk over this bridge with ease. If you are a bad person or an evil spirit, you will fall right through the bridge into the water. An elaborately decorated men stands at each end to help determine your status. I wasn’t too nervous crossing the bridge. I was more afraid for the rest of my group. Some of them seem kind of crazy. After walking over the middle bridge, you have your choice between the bridge of wealth and the bridge of health. But you can only choose one. I choose the bridge of health. I’m kind of accident prone so I expect more harm to my body then to my wallet.

Walking over the bridge of health

The Temples. There were several small temples within the ghost town. The temples usually have big figurines of important people who represent certain luck. In order to receive your luck, you are required to pray to these people. Some of the temples included luck in wealth, health, and fertility. I avoided the fertility temple. Definitely don’t need that one anytime soon! 

The Strength of a Man. This was a challenge to test if a man was going to be a good husband. Ben, being the only man in our group, decided to test this out. The goal is to lift the iron rock onto the tiny itsy bitsy rod protruding from the ground. Ben tried it out. Ben couldn’t do it. He wasn’t even close. Then a native from the town came up to the rock and spun it around and around the rod until he was able to pull it up and balance it. Like it was that simple. He is a good husband, supposedly. I guess Ben wouldn’t be. Aren’t the Chinese beliefs sometimes a bit harsh? For example, my mom used to tell me that if I didn’t finish every grain of rice in my bowl, my husband will be that ugly. It’s funny how balancing this rock is a standard for being a suitable spouse. It’s not that he is affectionate or he helps around the house. But yes, if he can hoist a piece of metal up off the ground, he is the one!

Not a Good Husband

Good Husband

The Statues of Bad and Good. These statues I actually don’t know too much about but some represent bad people and the other represent good people. An example would be the drunkard statue represents the bad people, the ones who just get drunk and spend all their money. A good one is the lady with the baby fawn. I think she is considered the caretaker. Of course, Ben had to defile this statue by motorboating her bare breasts and nibbling on her nipple. Classy.

The Drunkard

The Pervert

Reincarnation Story. This image was crazy. There were small sculptures of people getting tortured in many different ways. It was so gruesome. Someone is getting pummeled by a stick, dipped into a bucket of acid, insides ripped out, heads macheted off, and some other unheard of activities. After the assortment of torture, you are to drink this poison that puts you in a state ready to be judged and reincarnated. Then you get swallowed by a big gaping mouth, and reincarnated into different forms of life. This is displayed by the reincarnation rainbow, in which you can come back being something as lowly as  an inanimate object or as high status as a king.

Sex Change Anyone? It must be the easiest and cheapest way to get a sex change. If you walk over any of the thresholds in the ghost town starting with the wrong foot, you will turn into the opposite gender. I think if you were a woman, you were to step over with your left foot first. I didn’t know this until the last threshold I crossed over. So I must have broken even at the end because all my girlish good were still there.

How to Open a Beer Bottle. I got back on the boat after a long day traveling around. Some of us decided to stay up and drink a little bit, helping to pacify us from the chopping waves of the water. We were able to sneak some alcohol in before coming on to the boat since it is very pricey to buy from the boat. But one important detail we forgot to bring on the boat was a bottle opener. What to do? Well from the crazy year and a half I decided to go wild and drink a lot (compliments of Chris Rosney), I learned a couple things. You can open a beer bottle with almost anything. So we tried it. I searched all over the room finding things that I can use as leverage to lift the cap. I kept on considering using someone’s teeth and we decided that would be our default if no other opener was discovered. I used the sink’s pipe (despite the muddy river water it dispensed), the sink and bathtub faucet, the table edges, my eye socket and teeth (very lightly, barely,… actually not really), and anything metal looking that we could find. Finally, I pulled out a hanger. Ben, Ani, and Brigitte thought I was crazy. But I had confidence that we were opening this sucker up. I put the bottle in between Brigitte’s knees and took the hanger and tried to wrap the metal part around the lip of the bottle. It wasn’t working. I tried again. It still wasn’t working. Just as I was about to give up, I heard a puff of released air. I pulled the hanger back as hard as possible and the bottle finally released the cap. So we finally enjoyed our drinks and had conversations about who knows what.

And look at this view of the Yangtze River at night...