China is quite a contentious topic these days, what with the whole being a scapegoat for
everything wrong with modern society and all.
To assert that China is scary would garner all sorts of fascinating reactions, from claims
that they’re taking advantage of the globalistic framework the West set up, to lovely theories
that TikTok might just undermine world governments and leak sensitive data to Beijing.
But those are things that people rant about in the news and on Twitter, so we’re not
going to concern ourselves with all that stuff.
No, we’re gonna talk about the fears and stories that involve a more primal fear: less
concerned with alienation and more concerned with scary ghosts and spooky apparitions!
That’s right!
We’re gonna discuss some Chinese urban legends.
Hello horror heads, and welcome back to the scariest channel on YouTube: Top5ScaryVideos.
I’m your horror host, Keegan Hughes, and today we’re going to be talking about the
Top 5 Scary Urban Legends From China!
Before we get going, make sure to give this video a big thumbs up, and subscribe for more
oriental oscillations.
Perfect, let’s begin.
NUMBER FIVE: THE LOTUS POND Across all cultures, bodies of water are considered
scary in some way.
Ships have sunk, people have drowned, bad weather has brewed, etc. etc.
There's a certain mysticism to water, and we as human beings are fascinated by it.
Of course, water on its own can’t be scary!
We’ve got to add something else to the mix!
How about water plus adultery plus murder?
Everyone’s gotta be afraid of at least one of those things!
All classic themes.
So here is the tale of the lotus pond.
One day a young woman was waiting for her boyfriend by a lotus pond.
As she waited and waited, she got more impatient.
He was making her wait, the bastard.
After a while, she decided to look around and see if she had maybe been waiting near
the wrong spot.
During her search, she discovered something quite awful: her lover was away loving someone
else.
As one might imagine, she did not take this news well.
In a fit of sorrow, she threw herself into the lotus pond and drowned.
Nobody knows what happened to her boyfriend, but I think it’s safe to assume that the
next time he walked by the pond, her spirit dragged him into the murky water.
These days, it’s said that if a couple plans to meet by the lotus pond, they’d better
be careful.
The ghost of the girl will call out to any boy nearby, and if he even so much as looks
towards the water, he’ll be drowned.
That’s what you get for even looking, you dirty dog!
Now the lotus pond has such a bad reputation that many folks refuse to go near it.
And if you do decide that it would be a great spot for a picnic, you’d better bring your
horse blinders.
If you hear a girl calling out near this pond, don’t respond, don’t look, hell, don’t
even turn towards the sounds.
Unless you really like chilling below the water.
NUMBER FOUR: THE POOR, POOR MAID Who’s ready for more adulterous urban legends?
So, this one is a little more macabre than the jilted pond-dweller.
This story comes from one of the preeminent Chinese supernatural writers, Gan Bao.
Apparently, his father was a bit of a womanizer, and had maintained a long-running affair with
one of the family’s maids.
This didn’t sit well with Ban’s mother, who begrudgingly allowed it to happen for
years.
However, when the father died, she decided to take revenge.
The family had a tomb made for Bao’s dad, meant to eventually house the mother as well.
But when old daddio was buried, the mother also had the maid buried with him.
Alive.
That’s some hardcore revenge right there, don’t you think?
For years, the maid remained underground in the tomb, unbeknownst to anyone other than
the mother.
Then, ten years after the death of the father, the mother joined him in the afterlife.
Gan Bao had the tomb opened up so they could place her body there as well, and came across
an unpleasant surprise.
Firstly, he never knew that his mother had the maid buried alive, so there’s that little
shock to start us off.
But amazingly, the maid was still alive!
Emaciated and weak, for sure, but alive nonetheless.
She was nursed back to relative health, and questioned about her survival tactics.
Had she been crawling out for sustenance, and then returning to the tomb out of some
self-flagellating guilt?
Had she foraged for grubs and wastewater?
In the end, the only explanation she could give was that the ghost of the father had
brought her all she needed to survive for years.
I suppose he felt bad that his wife had punished this young worker in such a horrible way.
Nobody has seen any ghosts walking around with food and water near the tomb since, but
folks definitely keep an eye out just in case.
NUMBER THREE: THE LAST BUS In the same way that fears related to water
and adultery cut across all cultures, it seems that late-night public transit has a similar
legacy.
And really, why wouldn’t it?
Being in an enclosed space that is difficult to immediately exit, late at night, traversing
potentially unfamiliar terrain is fertile ground for horrifying happenings.
And just such a happening makes up the bones of this urban legend.
In the mid-90’s, a bus was heading to Beijing’s Fragrant Hills.
As it trucked along, two men attempted to flag it down.
This was odd, considering that they were not at a bus stop, but the driver was feeling
generous that day.
Turns out there were three men, two of which wore traditional ancient robes, and one more
who was being held up by the other two.
As the bus rolled along, it slowly emptied until there were two passengers left, not
counting the three latecomers.
A young man and an old woman both sat there, looking at these pale passengers.
Suddenly, the old woman accused the young man of stealing her wallet, and demanded that
the bus driver let them off so they could take this matter to the police.
When they got off, the man was furious.
Not only had she falsely accused him of committing a crime, she also had them get off in the
middle of nowhere!
No police station around!
However, she had a good reason to cry wolf.
She had noticed something nobody else had: the three men had no legs.
They had been floating at the height of standing men, and therefore must have been ghosts.
Who knows what might have happened if they stayed on that late-night bus with three phantoms?
NUMBER TWO: SINGLE BRAID ROAD What could be a reference to the shape of
the road is actually a morbid description of a terrible death that supposedly occurred
here.
Let this be a lesson to you all: don’t jump from trains.
Ok, I’ll explain.
Way back when, it’s said that there was a young couple.
The man had all of his paperwork sorted out, but the woman did not.
She, being an illegal immigrant, was living life a little on the edge.
Partway through the journey, some police officers boarded the train in order to check everyone’s
passports and such.
Realizing this would not end well for her, the young woman decided to hop off of the
train.
Unfortunatley, she had done her hair in a very structurally sound style that day: a
single, long braid.
When she jumped out, her hair got caught in the window, ripping her scalp from her head,
and taking her face along with it.
After having most of the skin on her head removed, she crawled her way to single braid
road, and died there.
Gruesome, right?
Well, the story doesn’t end there.
Apparently, if you head down Single Braid Road you might come across a young woman with
a long braid.
Only men can see her, though.
If you approach her, she’ll turn towards you and reveal that she lacks any facial features.
I’ll leave you to imagine what happens next.
NUMBER ONE: SUICIDE SHOPPING CENTRE Look, I get it.
Sometimes malls make me want to hop over the guardrail and into the fountain below.
We’ve all been there.
However, so many self-inflicted deaths have occurred at this shopping centre, folks are
starting to get suspicious.
Since it opened in 2004, over a dozen folks have committed suicide outside of Liwan Plaza.
Some say that there’s a mysterious presence that might give the unfortunate souls a little
push.
These claims are backed up by a variety of strange discoveries that occurred during the
building of said plaza.
See, while they were developing the land, eight empty coffins were discovered buried
below.
They did their best to work around this seemingly cursed discovery, first by constructing the
building to appear octagonal, and then by contacting a Taoist priest.
When the holy man arrived, he let the owners know that the coffins were meant to prevent
evil from spreading in that area.
The thing is, the coffins can’t do that job if they’re removed in the process of
building a shopping centre.
Uh oh.
Seems that strange noises and unfortunate deaths tend to drive customers away.
OUTRO My goodness.
What do you think?
Is there any truth to these tales?
Or are they simply overblown misunderstandings?
Have you heard of these before?
What Chinese urban legend haunts you the most?
Make sure you let me know down in the comments.
Speaking of comments, let’s take a look at some of your more incidental ones from
the TOP 5 SCARY SPACE HORROR MOVIES: MarcusAurileus says “Event Horizon needs
the cut footage restored.
Good movie to begin with, I’d love to see more of the story flushed out.
Pardon the pun.”
No need to apologize for your puns here, friend.
Otherwise, I totally agree with your statement.
Apparently it’s quite the challenge to restore that missing footy, though.
Maybe someday.
Christmas Lore says “Space and horror mixed together!
My favourite kind of movies!
It’s usually really great (or complete failures, one or the other - no middle ground).
It’s sad the genre is so scarce!
Alien saga eclipsed so many other great movies.”
I think part of the reason space horror is so rare is thanks to the Alien saga.
So many people try to emulate it, and any space horror tends to draw a lot of unrealistic
comparisons to a classic.
Brent Wood says “A list I finally agreed with all five choices.”
Ah, wonderful!
I finally achieved the Brent Wood Five!
Now I can retire and live out the rest of my days in peace.
Wharf Rat says “Lifeforce!
Mathilda May!
That’s all I need to say.”
Heyyyyo!
Alex Colley says ‘Are you wearing your pajamas?”
Honestly, I think any clothes could be pajamas.
That’s all I have to say on that.
And that’s all the time we have for today!
Before I kidnap a grizzly bear cub make sure to give this video a big thumbs up, and subscribe
for more worldwide wickedness.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time!