(Ecns.cn)—-A vast and ancient country, China can be quite mysterious – and sometimes downright scary.
There are places where restless spirits linger in the night, manifesting as eerie voices or strange smells, moving things about or creeping from the shadows as apparitions. In some cases, they may even attack.
Here's a few of the country's ghostliest places, which over the years have earned an unnerving reputation.
The Forbidden City
Located in the heart of Beijing and home to the Palace Museum, for 600 years the Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It was the home of the country's all-powerful imperial family – along with a nest of concubines and servants willing to betray and murder one another for influence. Thousands have lived and died within its blood red walls throughout history. As a result, many visitors and workers have claimed to have seen ghosts there, such as a group of maids-in-waiting or eunuchs walking by.
There was a rumor started by a soldier nicknamed Fat Fu who served at the Forbidden City as a guard in 1995. He recalled an evening in October when two of his companions encountered a ghost. "We were watching TV in the guards' room, and at 9 o'clock two of our men broke in. They looked scared and flustered," Fu recalled. According to his unfortunate fellows, they had met a woman with long hair and a black gown. The soldiers had yelled at the woman, but when she ran away they realized that she was not an employee at the Forbidden City. Maybe she's a thief, they thought. They started to chase the woman, who managed to keep a distance of about 30 meters from them. When the two men finally cornered the woman at a locked door, they ordered her to turn around. As she turned to face them, they were shocked and dropped their flashlights. The woman had no face, only hair.
Fu, carrying a gun, went back with the badly shaken men to the spot where they claimed to have confronted the woman, but she was nowhere to be found. Only the flashlights remained.
Dead Fengmen Village, Henan
Far less famous than the Forbidden City, Fengmen Village is located in the valley of a nameless mountain in North China's Henan Province, making it attractive to curious hikers. However, one should not expect mysterious and ornate traditions preserved in this village – that's because it's a "dead" place, long abandoned by an unknown tribe.
Surrounded by babbling brooks and verdant trees, the village contains buildings in the style of the Qing Dynasty, and looks like the last place that should be deserted.
A hiker nicknamed Maitreya who used to camp along the river outside the village tells of a spooky experience. He recalled that, with the intention of scaring his companions, he crept up and called out their names in the dark. In response, he heard a strange and gloomy voice calling his name, which he and his fellows said they had never heard before.
