‘The discoveries being made in Fengdu are so significant that they are likely to rewrite the history of Fengdu, the entire Yangtze valley and beyond,’ write reporters for Guangzhou-based South Weekend (Nanfang Zhoumo) magazine who paid a recent visit to the doomed city. Fengdu, located between Chongqing and Wanxian, about 430 kilometres from the Three Gorges dam, is known throughout China as “Ghost City.” The following article explains why, and highlights the enormous archeological loss that will occur in June when the Three Gorges reservoir submerges the famous city.

Fengdu is far from being a big city by Chinese standards, but it is well known as “Ghost City.” According to local people, while the living have a capital city, such as Beijing, the dead also have a capital – Fengdu – and all the dead on the planet register as its residents after their death.

People in Ghost City tell tourists that while the living may throng the local markets by day, at night the dead show up from every corner of the city, enjoying all the pleasures they had in life. It is said that after 10 p.m. every night, the city appears silent and empty, without a soul on the streets apart from shopkeepers selling funeral objects in dimly lit shops, and relatives of the dead holding quiet memorial services.

But when we visited the city one autumn evening, we stumbled on an astonishing scene that was not ghostly at all, but very lively. The whole city appeared to have turned out for a grand banquet. The warm air was suffused with a spicy fragrance as people gathered at restaurants for great feasts of eating, drinking and shouting. The scene was reminiscent of the final supper at a temple fair. A friend who has lived in Fengdu for many years told us that this is happening every night. “Local people regard this as their last chance to enjoy the pleasures of the old town. As the date draws near for the reservoir to be filled, they realize that these great social gatherings will soon be a thing of the past.”

The old Fengdu is on the verge of being abandoned, and most of its tens of thousands of residents have already been moved to the new city being built on higher ground across the river. Signs down by the river written in big red Chinese characters indicate the 135-metre “submersion line,” while black characters count down the days until June 1, 2003, when the water will begin rising to 135 metres above sea level and the old Fengdu will become a real underwater ghost city. Families are bidding farewell to their old communities and the streets they shared with neighbours and kin. And the big question is: Does anyone care about their suffering and their grieving?

Early in the morning, thousands of local residents can be seen taking boats over to the new city for work – but in the late afternoon, many return to the old town. Officially they have been resettled in new Fengdu, but even with the improved facilities and new houses, many prefer to stay in the old town as long as they can. Many share the view of one local woman who declares, “I’m not leaving my old house until the very last minute.”

Traditionally, people living in the vicinity all wanted to bury their loved ones in Fengdu. By law, the dead must be cremated in China, but in Fengdu people have tried to follow the old ways and to bury their dead. Records show that more than 70 temples were built around old Fengdu. People came from all directions for a big temple fair in Fengdu – a ghost festival – on the third day of the third lunar month. Families would often stay in the city for a week or even a month, visiting each of the temples in turn, burning incense, kowtowing and praying.

Many ancient tombs dating back to the Han dynasty (206BC – 220AD) are being discovered around Fengdu. Archeologists working hard in the new city, being built on 23 ridges on the south bank of the Yangtze, are finding ancient tombs just half a metre below the ground on each of the ridges. Astonished and excited at this great discovery, they say Fengdu is China’s best historical site for ancient tombs found in a single location. So far, more than 1,000 tombs and 100,000 ancient artifacts have been unearthed during construction of the new Fengdu.

However, the archeologists are also disappointed and frustrated because, they say, the real figure should be much higher. While the rugged ridges were being levelled to build the new city, the excavating equipment uncovered numerous tombs. “Some of them were reported and registered, but many more were simply crushed to bits,” the archeologists told South Weekend. “We could only watch helplessly, our hearts breaking while the precious treasures were destroyed in that way. But we can do nothing about it because we don’t have the power, the money or the time to protect them.”

With so many ancient tombs in the vicinity, many experts believe there must be a large city dating back to the Han dynasty nearby, but so far no trace of such a city has been found. Wu Tianqing, former head of the Fengdu Archeological Relics Bureau, believes that such a town must surely lie beneath old Fengdu, under the streets where the departing residents are enjoying their last suppers together.

Mr. Wu says the people of ancient Fengdu must have led a relatively affluent and peaceful life because the tombs they built over the course of about 600 years were solid and elegant, many of them adorned with beautiful pictures carved into large grey bricks. The occupants of the tombs were often buried alongside delicate terracotta figurines of soldier-guards, or young female dancers, musicians playing bamboo flutes and artisans toiling away at their art: The dead of Fengdu were to enjoy all the pleasures they had known before they died.

The discoveries being made in the Fengdu area are so significant that they are likely to rewrite the history of Fengdu, the whole Yangtze valley and beyond. The discovery of two Old Stone Age sites nearby, in Gaojiazhen and Yandengbao, extends the record of human activities in the Fengdu area back to 100,000 years ago. Unfortunately, vital details that would allow us to piece together a complete picture of the region’s history will soon be lost to a manmade project. Significant information about human civilization in the Three Gorges area will disappear forever when the water rises and submerges the cultural treasure trove that probably lies buried beneath the old Fengdu.

A longer version of this article appeared in South Weekend (Nanfang zhoumo) on Oct. 24, 2002.