- China has a history steeped in legend and myth.
With such a vast varied landscape and a culture
which goes back many thousands of years,
it's no surprise that there are things yet to be discovered,
hiding in the dense forests, mountain ranges,
and grassy plains of that incredible place.
No one knows for sure what exactly these cryptids
that we're about to talk about are,
only that they are unknown to science
and cause fear in all of those who encounter them.
(tiger growling)
(snake hissing)
Here are 10 creepy cryptids discovered in China.
Number 10 are the beasts of Tianchi Lake.
With over 24,000 lakes, many of China's
undiscovered creatures remain hidden from modern
eyes by murky waters.
In the Changbai Mountains, at nearly 2000 meters
above sea level, Tianchi lake is the deepest
mountain lake within Chinese borders.
In these unexplored waters a strange
creature has been cited many times,
often referred to as a beast or monster.
It has been seen numerous times over the last century.
Several images and videos of it have been captured
with its gray body swimming beneath the surface.
Whatever it is, it's massive and several
of these creatures have been witnessed chasing each other,
swimming as fast as a sailing boat and top speed.
One witness in particular stated their fins,
or maybe wings, were longer than their bodies.
Many there now fear for their safety
from these monsters and do not go near the water.
Number nine is the lutoulang.
There are huge stretches of land of China
which are relatively difficult to reach.
Inside such places far away from the sprawling
population centers of the country,
there are strange tales of a four legged animal
known as the lutoulang.
What's terrifying about these creatures
is that eye witness testimonies about it
are detailed and consistent.
A lutoulang is said to be a vicious mammal
which is often depicted as a cross between
a giant wolf and a hyena.
Others say that the animal has a protruding snout
like that of a horse, but with a mouth filled
with razor sharp teeth.
Some believe this creature may be an extinct
animal known as a hyaenodon.
These animals are thought to be gone,
but could they still be out there in the Chinese wilderness,
waiting to pounce on those unfortunate
to cross paths with them?
Number eight is the jinmenju.
Sometimes descriptions of unknown creatures
defy not only explanation, but reason.
The believable testimonies of those unfortunate
to see such things, paint a picture
of something which simply should not exist.
There are several accounts throughout China
of people coming into contact with something
that they can only describe as somewhere
between an animal in a tree.
In fact, in some of these terrifying encounters,
these bizarre creatures are described
as having a central trunk, but with two eyes and a mouth,
which is too human like to bear looking at.
Some researchers have suggested that these creatures
are the legendary jinmenju from Chinese folklore.
The jinmenju were described his trees
which bore fruit looking like a human head.
Whatever people are seeing out there, it's bizarre,
and not something that the human mind can easily grasp.
Number seven is the flying jellyfish.
On October 19, 1998 Chinese military operatives
picked up a strange object on their radar,
the blip at first appeared like an aircraft,
and those involved were worried that it was
from an enemy country.
However, when the strange radar anomaly was investigated,
it was revealed to be an unknown and bizarre life form.
The creature was spotted in Shangzhou
in the Hebei province, and several witnesses
who saw it likened it to a giant floating
jellyfish in the sky.
Six military jets were scrambled to intercept the creature,
as it was massive in size,
and deemed a threat to human life.
Over 140 people witnessed the cryptid,
which appeared to have glowing skin.
When the jets got closer to the creature
it moved higher up into the atmosphere
and remains one of the best documented and strangest
cryptid encounters of all time.
Number six, are sky serpents.
When looking for previously undiscovered animals,
we often look around the landscape
to see if there's any evidence of something
unknown to science.
However, one of the reasons why some creatures
are so elusive is because they don't spend
much time down on the ground with us.
Instead they live up in the air currents above us.
We only need to look up to see them.
The Chinese sky serpent is a great example of this.
Many people have spotted this unknown creature
flying up above through the air,
and while no one is exactly sure what they are,
eye witnesses report that they have long elongated
bodies like a snake.
These bodies ungulate in a strange motion
as though this is what propels them up into the sky.
Some believe that these unnerving creatures
are the very real inspiration for mythological dragons,
and that they occasionally swooped
to rain terror down upon us.
Number five, are the wuhan toads.
Visitors to the Baofeng Lake claimed
to have encountered huge amphibious creatures,
which resemble giant toads.
These claims could be dismissed
if there hadn't been so many of them.
The toads are set to be albino in color,
larger than a human being,
and to be extremely territorial and aggressive.
So much so in fact that they are known
to chase people down in search of their next meal.
Local fishermen and visitors to this remote region
of China first documented the wuhan toads back in 1962,
a group of locals were tired of being attacked
by the toad creatures, and so they threw dynamite
into the lake in the hopes that the explosions
would wipe the creatures out.
Unfortunately this only made them more aggressive
against human beings, and now those in the area
have to avoid the lake for fear that they will be eaten.
Number four is Yeren.
In North America people have been
seeing Bigfoot for centuries,
it's no surprise then that China has a number
of unknown ape like creatures of its own.
One of these is referred to as the Yeren, or man monkey.
This primate is mysterious in nature,
and has red and white hair all over its body.
It's said to be around 2.4 meters tall,
it has an unusually large jaw.
Over 400 people have encountered the Yeren,
and many of these witnesses have described
the ape like creature is having huge horse
shaped teeth with a sunken, almost human face.
Previously thought to be non-violent,
in a 1980 article a woman reported
that she had been kidnapped by a Yeren
and crossbred with it.
The offspring died at 22 years of age
before the article was published.
But most disturbingly when his bones were analyzed, experts
agreed that he had an unusual skeleton for a human being.
Number three, are unknown big cats.
China has a rich and diverse animal population.
Among its large predatory cat species
you can find leopards, snow leopards, and tigers.
These animals have been discovered and cataloged by science,
but with such a vast wilderness,
there are many who believe that there are other
mysterious cat species waiting to be uncovered.
Often referred to as phantom cats,
these animals are massive dangerous hunters,
which are easily large enough to take down a human being.
There have been countless sightings of such animals
and science has yet to discover what they really are.
One theories that they may be a species
which were previously thought extinct in the region,
or related to the fabled blue tiger.
Other suggests that these are not cats at all,
and are actually four legged creatures,
unlike anything humanity has ever seen before.
Number two is the birdman.
One of the unnerving things about these strange creatures
is that they often seem familiar to us,
they are very similar to cryptids
people I've encountered across the western world.
This is the case with the birdman,
which sounds spookily like America's own Mothman creature.
The Mothman himself is a winged humanoid with huge eyes,
which reportedly appears right before a tragedy occurs.
The Birdman in China is said to have the same
winged outline, but with a hideous human face,
with sharp talons in a wingspan wider than a bus is long,
these creatures seem built more for direct attack
than being mere omens.
Sightings of the birdman has been made across China,
suggesting that it isn't localized to any one region,
which begs the question, can it travel far enough
to reach those who live outside of China?
And number one is changshe.
Most people have a natural fear of snakes,
for some, this is a phobia, but for most of us, it's an
uncomfortable feeling that we just shouldn't be near them.
This is undoubtedly a product of evolution
helping us to avoid danger,
but even those who like to keep snakes as pets
would think twice about touching the changshe.
This snake was first described in Chinese mythology,
but it has since been cited many, many times.
It reportedly grow so long that it can consume
an entire elephant whole.
Between its scales, it has spines
which grow upward protecting it from attack.
Interestingly this gigantic snake
appears to have a dormant aspect of its life cycle,
as it spends most of its time living underground,
deep beneath the towering mountains of China,
very rarely it slithers out from its cave in search of food,
and when this happens, there's no escape.
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