It was midnight, on November 14 of 1995.
A bus had just departed from the Old Summer Palace terminal in Beijing, and was heading
to Xiangshan.
Aboard were just two people: A man at the wheel, and a woman as his co-driver.
The bus first stopped at the southern door of the ancient summer palace, which was the
official residence of the Qing dynasty emperors (1644-1911), before it was destroyed by British
soldiers in 1860.
Four people boarded the bus: An elderly woman, a young couple, and a boy.
The bus then kept advancing.
After passing in front of the northern door of the palace, the driver saw two shadows
moving in the highway.
That wasn't an official stop, so he wasn't allowed to stop the bus there.
However, it was so late that the driver felt pity for those people, so he decided to stop
the bus and open the door.
Three people went in.
They were three men, although one of them seemed to be very drunk, and was being held
by the other two.
Nobody could see his face because his head was bent forward all the way, not to mention
he also looked dirty and unkempt.
For some reason, the three men were wearing traditional tunics from the Quin dynasty era,
and they also seemed to be wearing some sort of makeup, since their skin was looking extremely
pale.
They sat in the back of the bus, and remained completely silent.
The other passengers looked at each other with worried expressions, thinking about how
strange those men looked.
However, the co-driver reassured the passengers by telling them that those men were probably
actors who just came out of shooting a film.
She was sure they went drinking after shooting, and that's why they were wearing those clothes.
That explanation calmed everyone down… except the elderly woman, who couldn't avoid looking
at them every now and then.
Four stops later, the young couple got off the bus.
Now, there were only the drivers, the old woman, and the boy… and in that very moment,
the old woman started to scream, saying that the boy just stole money from her!
The boy, who didn't understand what was happening, tried to reason with her, but couldn't calm
her down.
She then asked the driver to stop the bus at the next stop to take the boy to the police.
And the boy, who didn't actually take any money from the old woman, accepted to go with
her out of politeness.
The driver did as he was told, and both the old woman and the boy got off the bus.
And as soon as they did, and saw the bus drive away, the elderly woman turned towards the
boy and told him: "I just saved your life".
He still didn't understand anything, and thought that woman was completely crazy…
But she wasn't so.
She explained to him that those three men with tunics were actually ghosts.
Observing them, she realized that under those tunics, they actually had no legs!
The boy didn't know if he should believe those words or not… but the next day, he learned
the truth:
The bus number 375 didn't go back to base that night, and the next morning, all the
news outlets opened talking about the disappearance of both drivers and the vehicle.
When they saw the news, the boy and the old woman informed the authorities about what
happened… but the police didn't believe them, and sent them home.
However, the next day the bus was found sunk in a reservoir located 100 km away from the
original route.
And inside, they discovered three bodies in an advanced state of decomposition: The driver,
the co-driver, and a third unidentified person.
How was it possible for their bodies to decompose so fast in just a single day?
And why did the bus end up so far from its original route?
Hey there, tiktakers!
The Ghost Bus is a famous urban legend that has different versions in China, as well as
different versions in other countries.
The Mexican version of this story is pretty scary too, so if you are interested, let us
know in the comments and we'll make a video about it!
In China, this legend can have different protagonists.
In one version, instead of three men wearing traditional tunics, the ghost is a woman wearing
red.
In another version, when the police finds the bus, the gas tank is filled with blood.
And the number of the bus also changes.
In any case, it's good to be familiar with this legend so you can react if you are ever
taking a bus during the wee hours of the night, and someone suspicious gets in.
Better safe than sorry, right tiktakers?