During our Yangtze River cruise tour on board the Century Diamond, we stopped by a place called the Ghost Town (Fongtou Gosht Town) built many years ago. This town was built with the sole purpose to remind people to do good and shunt evil. As the name suggests, this town depicts life in hell for evil doers of the world.
In Chinese legends, there were 18 levels in hell for all kinds of criminals who committed hideous crimes against their fellow human beings while they were on earth. Depending on the severity of their crime, they were dispatched to different levels in hell when they died. Obviously their bodies and souls were tormented to different degrees at various levels in hell. The most serious cases were found at the 18th level in hell where there was no chance to escape punishment. We often heard people curing their enemies to die and be cast to the 18th level in hell where there is no escape and forgiveness.
There were various prison guards in hell to administer the punishments such as cutting off the tongues (for those who speak evil things against others), chopping of hands (for those who steal from others) and sending the bodies to a huge grinder or to boiling oil. All these scenes are vividly presented in clay figurines that really looked awesome and the life in hell was really terrifying. You may wonder how this can be of any good to visitors. Actually, the designers of this town wanted to use the terrifying scenes of bodies and souls being tortured in hell to educate people that this was going to happen to anyone who did evils against others after they died. Life in hell was made so real that people were frightened and scared of hell. To avoid being sent to hell, they will think thrice before committing any crime against their fellow human beings. If you were there and saw the horrible scenes of bodies and souls being subjected to the most hideous way of torturing in hell, you would probably agree that the building of the ghost town had serve its purpose, not to commit crimes if one does not want the kind of torturing in hell one would suffer upon one's death. The ancient people did have a point to bring this message across to the masses. For those who have eyes and let them see, crime does not pay.
Entrance to the ghost town
Signage of the ghost town
Drunken Ghost
A video item on a strong man lifting a weight
Wall Writings
Wall Writings 2
This reminds me also of similar things back home in Singapore. The Haw Par villa in Pasir Panjang also has the same theme. There were so many scenes that depict life in hell where bodies and soul were subjected to all kinds of torture one could imagine. If you are in Singapore, bring your kids to visit the Haw Par villa and enjoy a remarkable educational tour. Enlarge to read the writings on photos on left and right, it is interesting!
Century Diamond is a 6-star cruise ship that operates along Yangtze River in China to ferry tourists up and down the river. It has 6 decks and there is a passenger lift that brings people up and down these decks. There are restaurants, bars and a stage for performance and the upper level an is open-air deck for tourists to enjoy free space.
Century Diamond Cruise Ship
The crew members of Century Diamond, from cleaners, chefs to Captain, all are well trained in many areas. Besides carrying out their usual tasks on board the ship, they are also trained in performing arts like dancing, magic shows, acrobatic etc. Below are some performance recorded while we were on board the ship some time ago. It was China National Day while we were on board the ship, we were treated with a grand National Day celebration by the crew members of the ship.
The Hakka (客家) are Han Chinese who speak Hakka Chinese and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China. Although the vast majority of the Hakka live in Guangdong, they have a separate identity that distinguishes themselves from the Cantonese people.
The Chinese characters for Hakka (客家) literally means "guest families". The Hakka's ancestors were often said to have arrived from what is today's central China centuries ago and north China thousand years ago. The Hakkas are thought to originate from the lands bordering the Huang River (Yellow River) or Shanxi, Henan, and Hubei Provinces of the Northern China of today.In a series of migrations, the Hakkas moved, settled in their present locations in southern China, and then often migrated overseas to various countries throughout the world.The worldwide population of Hakkas is about 80 million, though the number of Hakka-language speakers is fewer.Hakka people have had a significant influence on the course of Chinese and world history: in particular, they have been a source of many revolutionary, government, and military leaders. (Source from Wikipedia)
On our recent trip to Meizhou, we went on a cruise ride along a river (Dongjiang) in Meizhou. On the cruise ship, we were entertained by the crew of the ship with Hakka song and dance. Below are the clips of the song and dance items.
Recently, my wife and I went on a tour to Santou, a city in the Guangdong province of China. We came across a place where the Tropic of Cancer Marks Tower was built. As the Marks Tower was hidden from the highway, we missed it on our way to Meizhou ( the ancestral town of the Hakka people). On the return trip, we finally arrived at the site where a tower of a globe was built.
Tropic of Cancer Marks Tower
There is a cylindrical channel in the middle of the Globe which pierced the Globe from top to bottom. There is a small circle marked on the floor where the hole falls vertically below it. If one stands on this circle and looks up on 23rd of March at 12 noon of the year, the sun will appear directly above his head and no shadow will be cast on the floor.
A cylindrical channel that runs from top to bottom of the Globe
The entrance to the Tower
Signage at the site
The Tropic of Cancer, also referred to as the Northern tropic, is the circle of latitude on the Earth that marks the most northerly position at which the Sun may appear directly overhead at its zenith. This event occurs once per year, at the time of the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun to its maximum extent. As of 2013[update], it lies at 23° 26′ 15.143″ (23° 26′ 16″) north of the Equator. The imaginary line is called the Tropic of Cancer because when the Sun reaches the zenith at this latitude, it is entering the tropical sign of Cancer (summer solstice in the northern hemisphere). When it was named, the Sun was also in the direction of the constellation Cancer (Latin for crab). However, this is no longer true due to the precession of the equinoxes. According to NASA observations, the Sun is now in Gemini at the June solstice.
According to sidereal astrology, which divides the zodiac into 12 equal parts, the Sun is in Gemini at that time. However, according to tropical astrology, which divides the ecliptic in twelve 30° sectors, starting with the vernal equinox, the Sun is always entering Cancer at this time, as the Earth's axial tilt is most inclined towards the Sun. The word "tropic" itself comes from the Greek tropos, meaning turn, referring to the fact that the sun appears to "turn back" at the solstices. (Text from Wikipedia)
