Ghost Town or Tourist Trap?

On the first day of our cruise, Steve and I were reminded that tourist traps are neither a purely modern invention, nor restricted to the Ozarks. 🙂 One of these shots is just our boat, taken from high up on the hill where most of the “Ghost Town” is located. Since we had a great time on it, I wanted to commemorate it.

The other shot shows a freaky set of buildings in the shape of a head and sort of arm-like things. It is WAY freaky in reality, and basically it’s one big tacky contraption to get the cruise ships to stop here, and stop they do! For a few hundred years, or perhaps more, locals have been saying there are ghosts and spirits and stuff here. There are a few Republican-era (1911-1949) buildings and temples of moderate (extremely moderate, by comparison with the sites Steve had already seen here in Beijing and that I can see any time I want) interest and taste, and then quite a lot of really tacky and weird stuff. We enjoyed our visit, though. Oh, and I’ll never forget trying to take my nap as our boat purred its way downriver, when Steve said “Ohmigod, Paul, you have GOT to see this.” It was for the scary/tacky white thing on the hill.