COUNTRY FILE · ASIA & THE MIDDLE EAST
Cryptids of China
What cryptids are in China? The best-known are Yeren, Lake Tianchi Monster, Lake Kanas Monster and Yeti, among 5 on file.
China’s best-known mystery creature is the yeren, the red-haired “wild man” of the Shennongjia forests in western Hubei. Records of wild men in the region go back at least to a Ming dynasty gazetteer of 1555, but the modern legend took off in May 1976, when five local officials travelling through Shennongjia before dawn reported a tall, hairy creature on the road. The following year a large state-backed expedition combed the mountains, and the yeren became one of the very few cryptids to receive sustained scientific attention from a national government.
Cryptids reported in China
Yeren
Shennongjia Forestry District, Hubei, China
China’s red-haired “wildman” of the Shennongjia forests in Hubei, the subject of state-backed expeditions since a famous roadside sighting in 1976.
REGIONAL LEGEND LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1903Lake Tianchi Monster
Heaven Lake (Tianchi), Changbai Mountain, Jilin
Dark shapes and seal-like heads reported in Heaven Lake, the deep volcanic crater lake on Changbai Mountain at the China–North Korea border.
REGIONAL LEGEND LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1980Lake Kanas Monster
Kanas Lake, Altay Prefecture, Xinjiang
Huge red shapes said to haunt Kanas Lake in Xinjiang’s Altai Mountains – a legend most scientists now credit to giant taimen, the world’s largest salmon.
REGIONAL LEGEND
HOMINID · 1921
Yeti
Khumbu and the high Himalaya, Nepal
The Himalaya’s “Abominable Snowman”: a Sherpa legend made global by footprint photos, monastery relics and DNA studies that kept finding bears.
WIDELY REPORTED HOMINID · 1876Almas
Altai Mountains and Gobi margins of Mongolia
Central Asia’s “wild man”: a hairy, human-like figure reported from the Altai and Gobi to the Pamirs and Caucasus, once hailed as a surviving Neanderthal.
REGIONAL LEGENDThe legends of China
China’s mountain lakes have their own monsters. Heaven Lake (Tianchi), the deep crater lake on Changbai Mountain at the border with North Korea, has produced monster reports since at least 1903 – from a buffalo-like beast to dark, seal-like heads – including a much-publicised 2007 video. Far to the west, in Xinjiang’s Altai Mountains, Kanas Lake is famous for huge red shapes beneath the surface – a legend most scientists credit to giant taimen, the world’s largest salmon. Both lakes are major tourist destinations, and their monsters are part of the attraction.
China also shares in two of Asia’s great wild-man traditions. The northern approaches to Everest in Tibet are where the 1921 British reconnaissance found the tracks that gave rise to the “Abominable Snowman”, and the deserts of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang lie within the range of the almas of Central Asian lore. For travellers, the classic routes are the trails of Shennongjia National Park, the north slope of Changbai Mountain and the viewing platforms above Kanas Lake.
Hotspots
Steep, forested mountains where the yeren has been reported for centuries and searched for since the 1970s.
Volcanic crater lake on Changbai Mountain with a long record of monster sightings, including a 2007 video.
Glacial lake in the Altai Mountains whose giant “monsters” are probably taimen; a fish-viewing platform overlooks it.
Where the 1921 British reconnaissance found the tracks that launched the yeti legend.
Sightings timeline
- May 1976The jeep encounter Yeren
Five local cadres travelling before dawn saw a tall, red-furred creature walking on two legs. Several tried to surround it but it fled; reddish hairs were later collected from the scene and the sighting was reported to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
- 1977The great Shennongjia expedition Yeren
A state-organised team of more than 100 people spent months searching. It collected hair, droppings, footprint casts and apparent nests, but no specimen or clear photograph.
- August 1, 1980The forest ranger’s red object Lake Kanas Monster
A forest ranger reported a red object more than 15 m long floating in mid-lake that vanished before others arrived. The report in Guangming Daily is regarded as the first official sighting.
- 1985Xinjiang University scientists see giant fish Lake Kanas Monster
A research team reported huge red fish, estimated at 10 m or more, and said a net several hundred metres long disappeared and was later found torn upstream. The team’s leading suggestion was giant taimen.
- July 11, 2003Officials count up to twenty Lake Tianchi Monster
Local government cadres, including a provincial forestry official, reported that “monsters” surfaced five times in about 50 minutes, at one point as many as 20. Seen from two to three kilometres away, they appeared only as black or white spots.
- 2004A meteorologist’s sighting Lake Kanas Monster
Fang Wei, an employee of the Xinjiang meteorological service, reported bright spots moving on the lake; her husband later said they had seen four creatures of five to seven metres.
- July 2005A tourist’s camcorder footage Lake Tianchi Monster
Zheng Changchun, a 52-year-old visitor, filmed a black object surfacing three times in the middle of the lake, each time for a few seconds. He estimated the visible part was the size of an adult ox’s head, though it was more than a kilometre away.
- 2007Television sonar search Lake Kanas Monster
A CCTV science documentary used sonar and underwater cameras and filmed a taimen about three metres long – a big fish, but far smaller than the creatures in early reports.
- September 6, 2007Six “seal-like” creatures filmed Lake Tianchi Monster
Zhuo Yongsheng, a TV reporter for the Changbai Mountain nature reserve, said he filmed six seal-like animals for about 20 minutes, describing fins “or maybe wings” longer than their bodies. He sent still images to the Xinhua news agency.
- November 2007The trout theory Lake Tianchi Monster
Kim Li-tae, a North Korean researcher, said he had helped release trout into the lake on July 30, 1960, and suggested that large “Tianchi trout” from the deep water could explain the reports.
- 2008A reserve official’s sighting Yeren
Luo Yongbin, an administrator at the nature reserve, said he had seen a female wildman with a young one. Critics accused him of seeking publicity, and the claim drew heavy scepticism online.
- 2012Three “monsters” filmed from the viewpoint Lake Kanas Monster
A scenic-area worker filmed three large moving shapes from a mountaintop platform. A CCTV programme that analysed the footage concluded it most likely showed a school of large fish hunting.
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Videos
ARCHIVE.ORG3:14
Daily Mail Yeti Expedition Newsreel (1954)
Daily MailPeriod newsreel in which members of the 1954 Snowman Expedition present their findings to the press. License not stated on archive.org.
ARCHIVE.ORG25:27
Science in Action: Himalaya Expedition (1961)
California Academy of Sciences1961 TV episode in which Lawrence Swan, a member of Hillary’s Himalayan expeditions, reports on science in the mountains once thought home to the Abominable Snowman. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
ARCHIVE.ORG21:27
Yeren, Almas, and Yeti: Cryptid Hominoids in Asia
Think AnomalousAn overview of Asia’s many “wild man” traditions, from the almas to the yeren and yeti, and how they appear in old art and literature (license not stated).
▶ VIDEO
CGTN Nature: Changbai Mountain Series – Episode 2: Tianchi Lake
CGTNA nature documentary on Heaven Lake itself – its volcanic origin, seasons and wildlife – giving context to the monster reports.