Chilluminati Podcast - Episode 20 - Fengdu Ghost City

Episode Date: January 6, 2019

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Beso-d! Okay, this is where the music is done fading in We're pretending like we're having a conversation and hey everybody welcome back to chilluminati podcast episode 2 Zero the big 20 boys. We're 20 years old now We're not even a year old. Is that crazy to you or what? It blows me away. I feel like we're like pretty on Schedule for like part like, you know being a bi-weekly podcast like you know like I feel like we're hitting that mark pretty well Yeah, I agree It's always a good sign. We're like if we're we're late by a day

If we're late by a day, we're getting tweeted at I'm like, all right. Well, that's a good sign because people want more Yeah, people are like, where's the podcast at dude. Do you get yelled at as well? That's all the time about many podcasts Yell at us. We like when you yell at us. I like a tension of things like really strongly affirm that you're into it And we're down for that. Yeah That's good. Yeah, I get a lot of messages that like people take us on their road trips And they just binge all of us like the whole series when in like one or two goes That's what people show us to their parents a lot. Yeah, the best place to listen to The Paranormal's in the car

Yeah, we're on a plane. I like the plane a lot. I listen to a lot of my own personal like favorite paranormal podcast on the plane But Welcome back. We're gonna just jump into the next one. This isn't gonna be a decidedly less insane than last episode. So You don't have to buckle up. You know, you made it that way What what you made it that way? No, I was trying to open your eyes to the truth This one's gonna be more creepy, I think it's gonna be more creepy thinking about the realistic like thinking about that this actually exists Yeah, so today ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about the Fengdu ghost city of China Do you guys know anything about that? I don't know much about it

Well, it's it's a fun topic because of just the history that that brought about that city and why it was built and some of the stories That revolve around that city to this day the thing to go city is actually still around today. It is a Touristy location that is not very popular with the tourists. It's notoriously difficult to navigate It is very maze-like a lot of climbing a ton of stairs and the types of symbolism and art all around the Fengdu ghost city are Kind of horror horror theme very horrific and we'll talk about why But the thing do go city if just kind of a baseline thing it is basically a city modeled after Chinese hell And I'm going to if I botch or butcher any very specific details about

Chinese lore or mythology feel free to let me know I You know, this is not a 100% Months dive into Chinese history, so I may either misspeak or say something a little off Just let us know but we did what we could here the best we can and before we dive in a big Thank you to Judy and Nathan our assistant researchers on this one for diving really deep into China's just kind of their ancestry and in their history And a big good luck to Deanna our third researcher because she's taken finals right now our last So good luck on your finals. I hope you knock them out of the park

But the thing do the Chinese ghost city what that is is it city modeled after Chinese hell and Chinese hell the way the way it exists To them is it's a place the spirits of the dead go where they need to pass different trials in order to be reborn back On the mortal world to be reincarnated and if they do not they are gone forever Devoured by hell more or less and we'll talk about that is the plot of the movie cocoa. I Have never seen cocoa. Oh man. I heard it makes you cry a lot. Oh god I'm not even gonna get into why it makes you cry a lot, but that is the like the Mexican underworld It's very similar like you have to like You have to like remain relevant or you just go away

Yeah, that that seems to be a running theme and a lot of just underworlds throughout History depending on you know who you're talking about but they all kind of have that same theme But before we go too too far into the Fengdu ghost city We wanted to wrap our minds around the cultural background of ghosts in general in China So we did read a couple of articles By Min Wen Huang and Ken Nakazawa about the Chinese cultural background and ghosts and stuff And I quote some of these as well So quote this is the systematic build-up of distinct imaginary human ghost worlds on a human ghost worlds underground

First of all, I take great offense to the word imaginary. All right. I still I'm not sure if ghosts are real yet So let's hold off on dropping imaginary human ghosts into this little let's be honest Something is happening. I think there's something do we really want to dive down this right now? No, I'm just saying you know Don't know no need to poo poo the idea of yeah, yeah So Get back to where it was the systemic build-up of the distinct human ghost worlds underground I a du from Buddhism and diffu from Taoism was launched only after the introduction of Buddhism to China So there was no

Human ghost underworld underground in China before Buddhism showed up in the popularity of Taoism as the major religious rival against Buddhism in the late Han and sea Dynasties a period severely troubled by long-term social and political disturbances, which is obviously gonna I think Be the root of all these popping up around this time Built upon and along with two main ghost belief systems in Chinese culture both du and diffu usually translated into hell in English Can be seen as expanded and transformed Imitations and copies of the human underworld or the human world rather whose formation consists of many bureaucratic and legal systems originating in Chinese society and were more or less completed only in the Song dynasty, which was

960 to 1279 CE so can I ask a stupid question? How I hopefully I have a stupid answer is it? Is it supposed to be shitty? The hell is yeah, is that like part of it in this and there are any parts of the hell Yeah, they're also like weirdly boring parts. It's more like purgatory kind of yeah, it's it's much Yeah, I'd say it's much more like purgatory. It's yeah, it's not like imps pinching your ass and shit. Yeah A lot less like that when we when we're saying like Chinese hell It specifically we use the word hell because that's just the the closest English translation we can get of their underworld or whatnot

But yeah, it's a place. Yeah, that's a place for trials and purgatory in that thing. Yeah, it's not awesome. Yeah, yeah, exactly I think I think in most Eastern cultures the concept of hell like actual hell the thing you want to avoid is non-existence Yeah, where it's like the the whole point is you can either keep going back or you can Achieve some state of nirvana or you can you know, whatever the case may be But the the big thing is like if you're a bat person you cease to be Right. That's pretty much what it boils down to You go through these trials and then if you fail you basically disappear

You don't get to exist anymore, which is the crux of a lot of just humans base fear of death Because you like and you know, you like life enough that you don't want to let it go From the humanization of cultural ghosts in Chinese society to that of literary ghosts in zi guai Chinese ghosts have developed from an abstract broad concept to one concrete Concrete Chinese character in which many philosophical and religious thoughts had been gathered They the ghosts as well as we humans need to return home in the sense that order and humanity Shall be restored. So there's the crux of this of this underworld in China It's a lot. It's a lot of pressure. Yeah, you don't like you got a lot of shit on your back

Be like, all right, fuck don't fuck up because then you don't get to come back The Chinese regard a human being as consisting of three elements the soul the spirit and the body The soul in its essence is like our soul and intellect combined It is the source of individuality and intelligence. It has eternal like it is internal like and when the body it occupies dies It moves into another so there's your reincarnation that we were talking about a little earlier It's kind of one soul from body to body Such a change in habitation is sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse for its new home Maybe a future Mandarin or an animal or a tree or a stone

You could just be a rock This just sounds like a video game like this is so crazy like this is such a big complex idea My question is if you do get turned into your soul gets shoved into a rock How long are you stuck there? Like when when do you die? When does a rock stop having its soul? Yeah, what does that mean? Like you have to like explode like you have to be grounded to toss into like magma Forever. Yeah, like the Terminator like yeah, I just like Oh Now as to the spirit the second part of the human the spirit is somewhat like our animal instinct

It controls only our body and its animal action And its animal in action and is utterly devoid of ideals and intelligence kind of like the it I guess if you were to compare it to something Okay, it usually dies when the soul leaves the body. So spirits are mostly Just part of that particular body. They don't carry over but occasionally it has sufficient enough vigor vigor to continue its Existence at such a time the body loses its intelligence and acts like a wild animal Such a body is called a running corpse and is so strong violent and destructive that no mortal is able to withstand its fury So a person on PCP Yeah, got it. I was going zombie. Oh, yeah

Same thing same thing bath salts. Yeah, that's kind of that that's kind of like If you think about it, that is kind of the zombie, right? They have no soul. They're just pure animal instinct They just live to feed and they are usually inhumanly strong and they're very difficult to kill But that's what the spirit is. That's the kind of just those instincts Death in Chinese is death in Chinese fiction is as never ever final The idea of death is the main source of Chinese ghost stories Many of the ghosts are wandering souls or running corpses who haunt the world frequently without any Conducing cause on their on the part of their victims

Which is funny because that is very similar to Japanese ghosts a lot of Japanese ghosts are They they usually exist and haunt people without reason They just it's kind of more like being in a state of matter It's you don't have like a personal relationship with your ghosts, right? Nobody knows why the ghost is haunting or whatever. They just are causing terror and it's it's not really you right doing it It's like you're just well, you're like a different thing. Yeah, the ghost is the soul but at that point like The yeah from your name on earth and your place on earth, right? Yeah

Yeah, it's what you're comprised of and like the idea is that like the soul what the soul wants without a body is so alien and Unknowable that it just seems like they're acting Randomly just to to horrify us to scare us when they want something We just don't know what it is whereas in I guess English and maybe even more recently like modern history American history Ghosts always seem to want something. They always want closure unfinished business crossover. Yeah, yeah That stuff doesn't exist, you know exists less so in Chinese and Japanese culture and I'm assuming a bunch of other cultures as well, right? Which is I find fascinating It seems in it seems like in the cultural foundation for the Fengdu ghost city stems from a belief that ghosts are journeymen

Going through the afterlife or do you in an attempt to return home in order to return home? These ghosts must go through a somewhat bureaucratic process of hell the Fengdu ghost city combines the cultures of Confucianism Taoism and Buddhism with the mythology of ghosts So this city is a mix of those three and ghosts all in one bureaucratic in what way? The well, yeah, we'll talk about it It's the trials more or less and having to pass tests and be okay and okay to be reincarnated

interesting, I think that's that's the Egyptian model as well like most yeah, yeah, that's true. It was like you don't just get in You don't just like just cuz you were good doesn't mean you like get a free ride Even if you're right, I still had to earn your way in It's like why people say old people need to take driver's tests again It actually reminds me of you know talking video games But you know got a war the most recent one going into the Nordic underworld with is that giant judging? You know Raven in the distance and all that. Yeah, I'm assuming that's pulled from Norse mythology obviously

But let's talk a little bit about those three religions So those who are listening who may not have an idea of Confucianism Taoism Buddhism understand what they are about Confucianism it was composed of a set of political and moral doctrines with the teachings of Confucius Confucius as its basis Humanism is the central feature of Confucianism which revolves almost entirely around issues related to the family Morals in the role of the good ruler It stresses the need for benevolent and frugal rulers the importance of inner moral harmony And its direct connection with harmony in the physical world Rulers and teachers according to this view are important models for society a good government should rule by virtual and moral example

Rather than by punishment or force Filial piety and ancestor worship which are old try traditional Chinese values are also part of the key components of For example Exactly, okay Perfect Taoism also known as Taoism is a philosophy which contributed to the folk religion of the People primarily in the rural areas of China and became the official religion of the country under Tang of the under the Tang dynasty Delicious orange drink as well. I miss Tang Thing was delicious. I do not is

Good you still get it. Yeah. Thank you. It's mostly just sugar, but it's still that's what I'm saying Well, I'm like six at heart so yeah sense Taoism is therefore both a philosophy and a religion it emphasizes doing what is natural and going with the flow in accordance with the Tao a cosmic force which flows through all things and binds and releases them Kind of you have to be conscious. Yeah, and you have to be conscious of all of this Yes, you have to kind of be conscious of how this all works In relation to the Fengdu ghost city a very common and major goal of most Taoists is to achieve Immortality rather than enter the regular afterlife

Reaching this goal is not easy There are various tasks that must be met during your lifetime during your entire lifetime to be qualified as to be immortal The two founders of the Fengdu ghost city were thought to have reached immortality, which we'll talk about soon That was the whole reason they built this city. So in their day, this was an achievement that Actually resulted in their immortality according to people. Yes, correct This is this is a massive achievement Interesting very very interesting the city itself if you guys go look Listeners as well. If you just go look at pictures of the Fengdu ghost city

It's a creepy but cool look in the site is all of this is all of this like natural to the time What is this man in the hillside? Well this this particular city is not I wouldn't say natural to the time But for varying reasons well a lot of what you're gonna look at too when you look it up online is stuff That's been built since Also true. There's a lot of things are added. It's become a tourist destination There's a lot of stuff that's been added in the nearby countryside So I'm pretty sure the figure you're talking about that's on a hill is like something it looks like something out of the 70s

Is what it looks like it looks like it looks like a giant sculpture. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of them that are just gigantic Yeah, this is like a building maybe like this is like Maybe people live in this like I am blown away by this The last bit before we dive in fully is the Buddhism stuff So Buddhism the the the Buddhism that first became popular in China during the Han dynasty Was deeply colored with magical practices making making it compatible with Chinese Taoism common beliefs include the existence of gods ghosts and a hell realm reincarnations and

karmic retribution So that's what you need to know about those three religions when talking about this city in particular I find it interesting that they basically had to bend Buddhism to fit with their Taoism sure make it work But that's the same thing. Yeah, why it's weird that they're mashing it all up Is it because of just that's how there's like that's how it just was back then with all those different? The all these different beliefs and religions were coming into China around this time And they were just trying to find a way to like believe all of it at the same time They're like, oh, yeah, and after life you got to do it all

That's it's, you know, we've talked about this before that's a yeah, if you go to the West It's Christianity as it's sweeping Golfing up all the other minor religions that are around it and sort of like incorporating everything and I think even nowadays I think it's safe to say and I'm no I'm gonna get message about this, but I think like it's safe to say that a Religion like Baha'i is like well, yeah, no all those guys were prophets, right? So like yeah, everyone was right and so that's sort of encompassing everything So I feel like as time goes on new religions form that sort of like take

Pieces of other religions in Japan. You have the whole like Shinto, but Christianity think they cross It's fascinating to watch people because they're like look what if we don't fight anymore and have our religions Just kill each other and what if instead we like Compromise on this and then a thousand years later. It's just like yeah, well, no, that's what it is It's it's incredible. Yep It's crazy. It's that's what happens when you're a country for like ever you know You can I mean like we can just look at Christianity and how many things can you pull from pagan beliefs with the Christmas tree and The different holidays and all that more more than 50% probably. Yeah, I would say so for sure. Okay. Now. Let's talk about the actual city

The story the story of the thing do go city It's founding dates back to the Han dynasty, which was between 206 BC and 220 AD That's when the Han dynasty ruled two imperial officials named Ying Chen Sheng and Wang Feng Ping Decided to escape from their political lives in the imperial court and came to mount Min Shan or Ming mountain to protect To practice Taoism teachings and become immortals The domain of hell through which each person was doomed to travel between death and rebirth Was administered by a succession of ten kings Because the founders names combined reference the fifth king of hell

Yan Wang King Yama some Chinese believe that Fengdu is the place where the devil actually lives Or at least is the location of the Chinese underworld or the entrance to the Chinese underworld So is this like a Romulus and Remus kind of situation like are these real people these people did exist They did go off and make these cities. So when you combine the two to two officials names you you can you get King Yama, that's the thing that's tripping me up about it. Those like that's that's crazy. They'd like they their names together mean king of hell Yeah, and yeah, basically it's like the city of hell. Yep. It's really weird Yeah, it's not like it could it be a chicken egg thing or like it became that of course it could be

Yeah, I mean it's it's possible. It's like 3,000 years ago almost. Yeah, like so hold on I mean 2,000 years ago not this city was created under the Like Confucius the Han dynasty. So Han would definitely be Buddhist then like a lot of Buddhist Fundamentality, right? Yeah, so the the thing do the next the thing to go city was actually known as a religious site that was filled with Buddhist and Taoist temples Like I'm no I'm no religious scholar at all, but it's fascinating to me that they created a city with the sole purpose of achieving immortality, but one of the big parts of Buddhism is like seeking immortality is

Not like it is a flaw like doing that is wrong Because just like trying to attain a bunch of stuff like goods like trying to like that leads to suffering and like One of the big Buddhist things people who don't know is like most of life is suffering and the way you get around that is by like Giving up your worldly possessions and not wanting to you know Buy a new video game because you don't really need that new video game that kind of thing and Immortality is another version of that where it's like you don't want to live to be you know immortal because that's Unattainable and getting that is like even trying is bad So the whole idea that they're like if we can just build this city would become immortals

It's like wait a minute. That's crazy then so was it just so is it just for them? Or is it like a temple like pub crawl that you like do and then you get immortality as well? No, it's not that the the goal of immortality was specifically for those two. That's crazy They wanted to become immortal and you got to keep in mind too Jesse when they were making the thing do go city During the Han dynasty it was the during this time Buddhism was only just becoming popular And it was being bent and in sprinkled with magics and stuff to make it So do you work with Taoism? Do you think then that the like Confucius idea of of? Trying to

Get this immortality if you do the certain things in your life that like you have to hit these certain key points If you hit all these things you get immortality. Do you think then that? This this is crazy when you think like because of what? These people did and the legend of them they folded into Buddhism like no You don't want to do immortality because that's gonna you're gonna like those assholes and that place is a mess like dad That'd be hilarious if you're happy you're crazy. It just started in yeah, it just became popular Yeah, so the idea like you can co-op some things and be like yeah Going for immortality is one of those things do don't do that because those people tried it was bad

Yeah, pretty much Fascinating. It's crazy that'd be that'd be wild This I mean again, they maybe they are maybe they are immortals and they're still living out there They're just like typical businessmen. Just maybe they're just chilling in a chair Downstairs in one of the buildings Playing mahjong Yeah So yeah, so the Fengdu ghost city was as was founded as a was known as a religious site like I said

That was filled with Buddhist and Taoist temples It is said that the Fengdu ghost city was a Taoist cemetery before it became to the ghost city that it is today That had initially started as just a cemetery the city itself is technically abandoned And the reason it was abandoned was because of the building of the Three Gorges Dam in 1994 And it consists of complex it consists of complex of shrines monasteries and temples Only recently since the dam was built in 1994 has the tourism started to truly ramp up has Fengdu become a ghost city prior to that It wasn't really a destination location for bill to check out in 94 People were living there

Well as abandoned in 94 because of the Three Gorges Dam so before that yeah, there were still people that were there It was a truly abandoned in 1994. So now so now there's no No one's living there anymore. I see okay. All right, not not at least not officially I mean, there's always those those haunted abandoned cities that still have like 20 people that live there and they just kind of sell t-shirts and oh Because it got cut off I see but yeah got cut off by the dam. So it had to be abandoned. Yes, okay. I understand now yep The the Fengdu ghost city is best known I'm just gonna call it the FGC from now on just say the fighting game community. Oh, I can't do that shit

The Fengdu ghost city is best known as the location of the underworld and the location of King Yama His sculpture is located here and is 138 meters high and 217 meters wide the tongue itself is 81 meters long and the mouth is 70 meters wide There are many gruesome statues strewn about the entire area depicting sinners getting their eyes plucked out being flayed alive or Boiled in oil For my dog. Yeah, that sounds like this sounds worse than hell. I'd rather just go to hell and have ants coming out my ass What Jesus? No, I don't want any of those things

Well, I've had to choose I'd rather yeah. Yeah, I said I would rather All right one play would you rather Jesse Jesse? Would you rather be boiled alive with oil or I've a like an army of ants crawling out your ass at any time? Well, here's the thing being boiled alive means that you then die from being boiled alive So my pain would eventually end you would have ants coming out your ass for eternity hard pass. So you're going So you're going in a ghost man. You're already dead. You're telling me that they're gonna boil me and I'm dead I wouldn't feel anything That's not how the afterlife

No, no, no, that's not how it works. I don't have a nervous system No, no, I would never go down this road. I wouldn't have a nervous Well, you'd have You'd be like talking dude you be talking with a Scarlett O'Hare Scarlett oh why Scarlett O'Hara? Why her? Those ants I

Do declare Those ants crawling out of your buttocks. I Don't want fan art of that. Please. Thank you. Thank you. Oh my we never thought we were gonna see that in the Fangdu ghost city No, no, I did not think the FGC was not ready Don't call that guy ant man Don't call that guy ant man. That's You got a positive spin this shit man Oh, I mean did I say ants coming out of my ass? I meant now I'm ant man and

Scarlett O'Hare is like frankly my dear. I don't give a damn Yeah, I know that was red butler Okay, we got to move on. Okay. That was red red All right, Brett Butler Brett Butler Okay back down to boiled oil So that's what the stitches statues depict for ghosts to pass through the afterlife

They need to go through three tasks the Nahi bridge the Guiman gate and the Tianzi Palace a Soul needed to pass these three tests before reaching the afterlife. I hear you ask, but Mathis What are these three trials for Mathis? What are you trying to say? Well, how about we find out Jesse? I'm not gonna spoil it Then the Nahi bridge or as it's translated the nothing to be done bridge or the bridge of helplessness Was built during the Ming dynasty and is located halfway on Mount Mingshan Which is where the city is located According to traditional belief

This was the bridge that connects the mortal world to the underworld and is a testing area for good and evil Okay, one more question one more question because I'm trying to I'm trying to clarify sure sure so The ghost city of Fangdu. Yeah is the place That you do this it is it is the place where the as it is believed or was believed that this is the place where ghosts go To do this so that's why they built it I

See okay, so this literally like if you go here you are treading the ground that the spirits themselves crossed you are correct That's like spirited away. That's so creepy never seen that movie. Oh man. You should it's crazy I need to but I have again chicken egg is this so they did they make the city based on a Legend of where the city was Or did the Ming dynasty come before the whole that's where ghosts go because that place is messed up so the This is built based on what they believe and then after the city was built it was then believed that this is where ghosts it became either the hell itself or

Depending on who you talk like depending on what you read basically It is a gateway to the actual Chinese hell like either way This city is where your soul has to go through. Yeah, it's like in spirited away You like step through the like whatever and then like maybe it's not the same place But it looks exactly like the place you just were thinking like that like another dimension through the veil kind of yeah Yeah, yeah, that's a good way to put it According to traditional Chinese belief this bridge the the the bridge of helplessness or the nothing to be done bridge This bridge was that what connects the mortal to the underworld and is a testing area for good and evil

The bridge itself is composed of three stone arches where the middle arch is used for testing The there are various protocols for crossing it depending on a person's age sex and marital status Below the bridge are square pools of water where their virtuous are said to be able to cross the bridge safely But those who have led evil lives are believed to be pushed by demons into the water below that is a classic test Just like are you bad? Huh? Down you go. Are you good? Okay? You can go you're fucking this toxic demon entity gatekeeping the afterlife Even even in hell things are being gate kept. Yeah The second well, maybe maybe it's here Maybe this year the gatekeeping is actually happening the second major take test takes place at the Guiman gate or the

Ghost torturing pass or the gates of hell the ghost torturing pass. Yep. Yep. What do they what happens there? Yeah, this the front of the gate is decorated with 18 sculptures of ferocious demons It is believed that it is here that the souls of the dead report to the king of hell for judgment The dead are issued a road pass which would serve as evidence so that they may register in the afterlife again as we said earlier Yeah, exactly. It is incredibly bureaucratic you need a road pass. Yeah, that's so weird All right sign up here. It's like it's like you can't even get away from the the

What do you call it the DM the DMZ? Yeah from even in hell. Yeah, you're just there No matter what you have to deal with it But the last test the last major test is carried out in the Tianzi Palace the Emperor's Palace This structure was originally built during the Western Jin dynasty So as you can see over time more and more is added to the city. So was the Han dynasty first? Han dynasty was first they went off and founded the city main game after I'm it was being added to over and over and over again And we're gonna talk about why it's weird that they went off and built the city after we're done with these tests So the last major test is as the entrance palace

This structure was originally built during the Western Jin dynasty the current one However dates to the early part of the King dynasty The palace cover so is replaced with a different palace later on The palace covers nearly 2,908 square yards it is composed of a temple gate and that's nearly 33 feet in the palace itself The test here is for a person to stand on a large stone located in the front of the gate on one leg Whilst a good person can do this easily an evil one apparently cannot leading them to be punished in the afterlife Okay. All right, so hold on

Test number one Cross the bridge where the demons push you off the bridge to your death if you if you're a bad evil You're a bad person test number two kneel before the literal king of hell. Yep Then get a road pass test three stand on one foot Oh What do you put it like that stand on one foot? That's it. That's how long you had to do it. Oh Listen time doesn't exist in the afterlife. Is that real? I how long how long are you supposed to stand on one foot? Wait? Hold on. It does. What is this last test?

I need to look this up. This is makes no sense. I could do this Well bad people can't keep their balance on one foot when they're in the hell. Oh I See Jesse's googling. Oh, yeah, I need to know Well, we'll let him we'll do that while he's doing that The other the other the last thing I want to talk about and is Before we move on is that what's weird about these two people who left to create this city Is that most who work in in in the you know within within the Chinese Empire at that point who wanted to do great things?

Usually at the end of their reign whether that be via emperor or or a higher a higher position of power within the government They would build a monument either to themselves a statue a temple to the religion whatever it is That would be their their last legacy. They wanted to go out on a high note This city is weird by itself because it's an entire little like temple city that these people went off to me already a weird thing to build Yeah, already a weird thing to build Moreover their names combined create King Yama basically a king of hell and they also didn't wait to the end of their reign They did it at the peak of their reign where they had so many more years left ahead of them They decided that that's when they were gonna go off and try and achieve mortality by creating this thing

And then according to legend they achieved immortality and that's they actually achieved it They didn't wait we didn't wait to the end of their of their of their service I guess to do this which is when most of them did Why it's a little weird why we don't know we don't know why Interesting the will the why the why is they were trying to achieve me mortality. That's that's pretty much the only why we got I wonder if somebody told did somebody tell them that that was gonna happen Did they decide this from their own study well like we say you know I'd be like we said at the beginning of the episode achieving immortality was something that people could attempt to do

But they had to do like an unseen number of things to achieve it like during their lifetime And if they did all of those things Then they would achieve immortality what those things are God fn knows nobody knows that kind of reminds me Did anybody here play Star Wars galaxies? Yeah back in it. Yeah Remember how you could unlock a force character by the the the original way which was mastering two or three random professions And you never when you make a character. That's what you had to do You don't know which ones it is you don't know which ones it were it was just a random three That's what this reminds me of it's like you have to achieve x number of things to achieve immortality in your lifetime

But nobody can do it because a it's not real and be or I mean maybe it is they maybe left and achieved it But be you're not told you don't really know So what we're supposed to believe is that they were like This is it. This is what yeah, they were just like what if we just did this and then the other guy was like yeah And then they just let's go let's do it and they went and they did it okay Why wasn't everybody doing this? Oh Jesse Jesse's face-pomming. Yeah, I did my research on this and You're absolutely right There's the bridge is number one and the demons push the sinners off or the bad people or whatever and if you're good

And then it's also based on like Sex and class and and yeah, you're married There's like other stipulations to crossing this bridge when you get across Then you go to the demon king and he's just like yo, what up? Here's a pass you made it and then the next step is This is what's crazy You're right you just stand on a rock on one leg and if you're good You can do it if you're bad you can't but at this point If you how long bad enough to have snuck past demons and the demon king

It was like, you know what you are a good person you can get past and you fell on the rock That is bad that you just you screwed yourself on that one I'm gonna try second try second try demon king, please I just like I just have naturally bad balance like it's just weird like I'm not used to this No, this this this weird non-corporeal form That's what if you're like really good, but you suck at balance and they're like nope Sorry back in the pools with the sinners Only bad people can't balance it's it's infallible logic, right, right? I

If I have to do this for 40 seconds I'm getting in If I have to do this for five minutes I don't know if I don't know if I'm getting in Worth the shot though. Yeah, and I doesn't just have to do with how good I was it also has to do with my age weight size and shape and And I and I just want to know I want to know if I can make it into Chinese hell No, you'd be going back to life. You know, I'm making it back

I could be a rock is it if I do if I stand on my Maybe the longer you stand on your foot. Yeah, the longer to stand on your foot the better person you are Yeah, another life. You like really hung in there. You were like on that. We all we all did all three of us Yeah, good for us. Hey, we we were good enough to become minor YouTube celebrities. You know what? Hey Damn, right. We probably did a good minute and a half on that rock next time Hollywood here. We come I'm going for the five-minute rock stand What was that Jesse gonna be a dog next time I'll take a cat

I want to do I want to be like Tom Cruise where I'm like coming up with reasons why I'm like trying to kill myself To like make movies like I just want to like be the most powerful man in the world like Tom Cruise You just want to strap yourself to a plane and then film it. I get it He's just like what if I climbed the bridge califa. It's like, okay. Yeah Can we film it? Yeah Who knows man, who knows me you just make some Chinese hell movies. Yeah. Oh Actually, that didn't work out great for Matt Damon. That was a weird that was a weird movie man That's also unfortunately true

So while the thing do go city is centuries old some of its symbolic structures were created fairly recently For example, one of the towers the last glance at home tower was built in 1985. What a dour name for a tower The last glance at home tower It's like a tower that I assume that you climb right before you die to like look at with the direction of your house Yeah Alright last time you get to look at this before you're reborn as somebody else. Who do I get to be reborn as? Let me look at the list a man by the name of Donald J. Trump. Yeah. Oh Oops. Oh sweet. I'm gonna be president. Let me look at the Brit list

It looks like you're gonna be a rock in the Badlands for four million years God I'd be like I just go to hell can can I go back across the bridge and the demons just push me I'd rather do that That particular tower is actually the newest addition to the the thing do go city It's where the spirits who are assigned to hell could take one last look at their families. That's what that tower is for. Oh my god Sad as hell

Do people do this today like is that like what it's for that's what it's a you know for for the spirits who are going to hell They can look at their families one. Oh, it's for the spirit. Yeah, it's for the spirits. Yeah. Yeah, it's for the spirits It's for the for the ghosts So what is going on with the thing do go city in more modern times? Well, I'm also glad you asked that question in more recent years since the building of the Three Gorges dam The thing to go city has become a tourist site The construction of the dam caused a huge resettlement that impacted the economy of the Fangdu County in China The reconstruction of the dam started in 1994 causing a rise in water

Rise and water level turning the Fangdu ghost city into an island in an article by Chao Kuaixiang the author noted that before Construction started in 1994 the central government in anticipation of the project has refrained from investing in the area and that local industries are Non-economic are non-economic badly equipped and even outmoded many towns villages and industries lack the most rudimentary Infrastructure facilities, so basically it's just pointless to do anything out there, which is why it was kind of cut off. Huh? The dam forced the residents of the old Fangdu to relocate to higher ground Many refused to move because they could not afford rent in the new Fangdu However, the new Fangdu offered more opportunity in the modern world for those who could could afford to go

So the new Fangdu now has around 850,000 people a high-speed rail link well-stocked supermarkets and at least two unauthorized Apple dealers. Oh nice Is it still? Why is that in the research somebody's somebody's really going deep on that? She oh, yeah, this is Judy Judy went supremely deep with like what is Fangdu up to today She was like what if I need to fix my laptop while I'm in Fangdu. I Think it's kind of funny that there's just two unauthorized Apple dealers out there is the new Fangdu also based around death

No, no, it's not Fangdu so Fangdu the Fangdu ghost city Fangdu is the name of the location that it was built like I see County Fangdu County I see so the Fangdu ghost city is not the entire Fangdu correct got it my apple I should have I should have clarified that earlier. That's my bad So much of the Fangdu ghost city itself was high enough to survive the flooding So the tourism to the ghost city was able to survive Knowing this it is a little it is little wonder that the inhabitants surrounding the Fangdu ghost city grasped at the economic boon of Tourism in a paper from 2017 Fangdu district farmers were relatively satisfied and very satisfied with the increase in rural tourism

The paper cites that tourism has led to a direct impact on farmers life satisfaction and more and more towns and cities in the area are Turning to tourism as their pillar industry investing huge sums of money developing infrastructure and riverside attractions Now that's important because what we're gonna get into next is ghost stories and the things that people have seen and heard Around that city that may or may not be paranormal or may or may not be planted the plant there to get people to come the good stuff Out the good ghosty stuff Well, that's a quick overview of the Fangdu ghost city gentlemen before we get into the crazy stuff I think it's fascinating. I think it's really interesting, but I'm also kind of a history buff So I find that stuff just enjoyable

Let's talk about some ghost city ghost stories Nearby I like how you just I'll try I'll lean in Nearby I see a group of sight caretakers and take the opportunity to dig for ghost clues But when I ask one if they've seen any ghosts in the areas he laughs and replies that if he ever did he'd run away The other caretakers laugh with him, but one man steps aside and starts talking to me He's higher up in the ranks. Maybe a tour guide or a sight manager

There was one man he said he had a heart attack and nearly died He tells me paramedics were able to revive him But when he came back to consciousness He had vivid memories of ghosts with chains pulling and dragging his very soul Into the depths of hell itself to be tried and reborn into a new life What so you think he so do you think he crossed over to the like That's one of the stories the guy had a heart attack like one people who one of the people who was there Had a heart attack while he was being a tourist and while he was dying

His soul had chains wrapped around him yanking him to the under the underground where he was to be tried That is so Severe for a ghost story that is like the opposite of like usually we just see like an 1800s lady walking Or a knocking on our wall. Yeah, okay. If you hear me knock three times Somebody's cracking their toe somewhere And if you're watching a ghost show did you hear that? Did you hear that the camera probably couldn't pick it up? Medium getting into character as the as the ghost

So you're talking about a Zach I'm talking about I'm talking about Derek Akora. You've been you've been called out I'm calling out Zach Baggins. Yeah, you know what you should call him out I'm calling him out because he gets possessed on every episode. He's on I always get possessed I simultaneously want to call him out and also thank him for providing me with endless hours Oh, me too. If he wants to guest on the podcast, he's welcome to oh my god. I really well Yeah, I would love to come talk. I would love to talk to you Zach Baggins. Jesse. You look deep in reading. I Just don't I'm trying to find ghost stories and I just don't know They're all they're all very much like I

Don't want to say ancient but I'm trying to find modern stories of this place and all I can find I just told you one That's not that wasn't a modern story Like I'm trying to find like Yeah, my wife Phyllis and I were on vacation and there was like a little girl and it was a ghost girl She ran by and said like a curse on your house. Like there's nothing that all it is this tourists It's just a tourist trap now Well, what are what what are the other ghost stories? Here's another one We've run the whole gamut of Chinese ghost culture

But haven't managed to find a single ghost on our journey Have I failed as a ghost hunter or is it just that there aren't any real ghosts here? I confide these thoughts in Bonnie as we made our way down the path and ask her if I if she thinks there are ghosts lurking in These temple grounds Actually, I saw something myself. It was an autumn evening in 1998 the Boat of Rage very late that day It was almost 8 p.m. And I was leading a group of tourists from America to the hilltop We saw a human-like shape with flowing cloth all over its body Dancing against the dim moonlight. We all screamed then it disappeared

What Right Like again, these you're right there ghost stories But I mean like I'm trying to find a real story that doesn't sound like it was written in goosebumps Like I'm trying to find Something and I don't see it There's not many actually now. I'm just gonna spoil it for you right now These are the kind of ghost stories that were in the Fangdu ghost city when I first started researching the Fangdu ghost city

Initially just on my own. I was like all this place seems really really cool Like this seems really fun to research. I would love to go here and walk around But as the more I researched and more went into it I found it more of just a fascinating place, but one that was clearly light on haunted stories Which is fine because again the podcast about all things weird and interesting and creepy and horror Whether it be stuff like this or serial killers or you know in yeah, but this was a Yeah, the ghost stories of this place were very like we saw something and then we got scared and it was gone It's like oh, okay. Here's the thing. Maybe these are the real ghost stories

Because they're so simple and boring compared to like the ghost stories We know where it's like and then the ghost banged on the cabinet four times and it was Amityville horror one's a perfect example Yeah, like they I don't know it feels like I almost like I almost like that There's not ghost stories about this place though because it kind of makes it seem more legit because it was never about being spooky Anyway, right? Like it was about about yeah reverence. Yeah Yeah reverence and finding immortality and doing something that they would people remember them by again There are still the rumors that they achieved immortality and there's a lot of interesting

coincidences surrounding them like their names combined and when they went and did it and and then the fact that people you know They they may have achieved more immortality according to rumor and mythology, but overall it's just a very interesting city Yeah, and and honestly if you're sitting you're listening to this and you're like sad because you didn't get as creeped out as you wanted to be Do do me a favor and just google the damn place Look at just look at the pictures Tell me some of these freaking statues don't like creep you out It's like this old demon man like like pulling the pants off of this like weird like cherubic baby Who's showing his butt cheeks?

There's a there's a little statue figurine of two people tied to a pole and two demons cutting open their chest cavities and ripping out Their organs and stuff like it's horrifying because Chinese hell is like still fucking scary I'm seeing I'm seeing like this like little model of like a gate Of people trying to get through the gate and they're like mushing through the gate like like those like horrific scenes You hear about it like when there's a fire at a nightclub just like a massive bodies just like spilling out of this gate There's one looking at one right now It is of like a bearded scraggly-haired guy in a Hawaiian shirt trying to balance on a rock, but failing oh My god, the worst hell of all getting reincarnated as a chair. Oh

My god But that's your thing do go city gentlemen. What an interesting place Tell you no one can say this did not capture their imagination if you you need to read this Yeah, it's really really cool. We'll be going into more weirder back to bore cryptids and it goes in the next episode and stuff But you know when something hooks me. I'm like, I gotta talk about it. Let's just it's interesting man. Look it up It's really really cool, but uh, thank you guys as well for for hanging out and listening with us By now we have either reached a thousand five-star reviews or we have not and came short And if we if we did it doesn't mean we can't get there what what if we did?

But what if we did and then what you just said was nonsense because we already that's true Have you you better be like dick deep in research? Have you figured out what your what your thing is that you believe that we don't is Yeah, yeah, I think I have All right, I'm excited You want to preview us? No, I Know if I preview then you'll know about it and you'll be like, oh Can you imagine if I'd spoiled that it was gonna be about the Beatles that one time? People still come out out of the woodwork to be like fine something you don't know about I'm gonna really

Make you go crazy. You're gonna be like hell. Yeah I I got a couple crazy things that I want to do episodes on to Prep a man, and then you just tell me when and you can take over for for the year episode Yeah, I'm I'm I'm gonna have a little a couple days off for Christmas Maybe I'll maybe I'll get some books hit the books. Maybe I'll hit the paranormal section of the library I'm still trying to read through that alien book. I talked about last time it is Insanely written is very very difficult to parse, but I'm excited to finish it creepy stuff is cool guys. I Love this podcast anyway, and if you guys for listen, and if you love it you can wear it

Please buy a piece by our shirts our hats and our stickers at the itty-dot-com slash Chilubanati today Please do support us support yourselves spend some of those gift cards And some of those basic gift cards you got for Christmas on that Sounds good to me Yes, Jesse nothing. I was laughing at okay a terrible suggestion It's not a terrible suggestion use your gift cards to buy yourself. Don't mark that snapback is fire It's I love it's fire dude. I wear that shit. How are you gonna tell me what is that all of garden to buy a thing? That doesn't none of it makes sense what you just so no no no like like your visa gift

Can you get a visit visa gift card? You can spend anywhere you want of cards. No one dude my uncle does It's Garden in Lotto tickets for my family. Thank you very well garden in Lotto tickets. Yep to be honest not a bad trip That does sound kind of fun. I bet you can have a good time with it. All right But thank you guys for listening if you want to you know post your own stories if you've traveled to the thing Do go city and over to our subreddit to shilluminati pod Over on on reddit and tell us all about it or you can tweet at us shilluminati pod on Twitter or to tweet at us Individually send Jesse some cursed stuff to me

No, send it to you and Jesse at oh, yes, it's Alex. There you go. Perfect and Yeah, you can tweet at us individually at Jesse Cox at Faustiana a and I'm at this games That'll be it for us for for for now. We'll see you in a couple weeks as we always do. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time Dear roads trails into rivers you ready for some SUV action Toyota SUVs can roll their sleeves up for twisty trails or dress up for a night out on the town Up your family adventure game with the Highlander make a splash with the rugged RAV4 or Hall of Weekends worth of fun with the spacious new Sequoia

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