Fengdu Ghost City (酆都鬼城), located on Ming Mountain above the Yangtze River in the Chongqing municipality, is the most elaborate and thoroughly-developed representation of the Chinese afterlife in physical architectural form anywhere in the world. The site has served for nearly two millennia — since its dedication during the Eastern Han dynasty (roughly 25 CE) — as the earthly embodiment of the underworld bureaucracy of Diyu, the Chinese Buddhist-Taoist hell. Its temples, bridges, and statuary depict the Ten Yama Kings, the Bridge of Helplessness (Naihe), Ghost-Torturing Pass (Guimenguan), and the chambers of the Eighteen Hells where souls are weighed, tortured, and reassigned to their next incarnation.
Local tradition holds that Fengdu genuinely is the administrative center of the Chinese afterlife and that the souls of recently-deceased Chinese pass through the real city on their way to judgement. Rituals at the Tianzi Dian ('Son of Heaven Temple') — including the three tests of the Bridge of Helplessness, the Ghost Gate, and the Mirror of Retribution — are said to foretell each visitor's afterlife fate. Temple priests document paranormal incidents at the site: visitors collapsing at specific shrines, bells ringing when no one is present, and the appearance of incense smoke assuming human-like forms at the altar of the Ten Yama Kings. The site's two-millennium continuous operation as a religious destination for afterlife preparation gives it a cumulative spiritual weight unmatched elsewhere in China.
The 2009 impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam flooded the lower portions of the historical city and permanently submerged portions of the original temple complex, including several centuries-old statues. The main shrines on Ming Mountain were preserved on higher ground and remain actively in operation. Locals in post-flood Chongqing continue to report unusual atmospheric phenomena in the reservoir above the old city — particularly sudden cold fogs and the distant sound of temple bells rising from the water. Fengdu remains the most architecturally and ritually elaborated representation of the underworld in the world.