China's 'Loch Ness Monster' Resurfaces

Closed Thread
  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Posts
    132

    China's 'Loch Ness Monster' Resurfaces

    BEIJING - China's legendary "Lake Tianchi Monster" has surfaced anew, with local officials reporting sightings of as many as 20 of the mysterious and unidentified creatures in a lake near North Korea.

    Sightings of the strange beast -- China's version of the "Loch Ness Monster" -- date back more than a century, but like Scotland's famed "Nessie" reports vary and remain unconfirmed.

    On the morning of July 11, several local government cadres caught sight of a school of mysterious creatures swimming through the lake in the Changbai mountains, in northeastern Jilin province, the Beijing Youth Daily said on Tuesday.

    "Within about 50 minutes, the monsters appeared five times," it quoted one of the officials, provincial forestry bureau vice-director Zhang Lufeng, as saying. "At times there was one, at times there were several. The last time, there was as many as about 20."

    He said the creatures, two to three kilometers (1.25-2 miles) in the distance, appeared only as white or black spots. But from the ripples in the water, he and others determined the spots were "living beings."

    Officials were not reachable for comment.

    In 1903, according to local records, a creature resembling a huge buffalo with a deafening roar sprang out of the water and attempted to attack three people before one them shot it in the belly six times. The beast roared and disappeared back into the water.

    A more recently documented sighting compared the head of the monster to that of a human -- except with big round eyes, a protruding mouth and a neck 1.2 to 1.5 meters long. It also had a white ring separating its neck and torso and smooth, gray skin.


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Posts
    33

    UPDATE:

    BEIJING - Within a week of of the legendary "Lake Tianchi Monster" sighting, emotions in the Jilin province have gone from euphoria to distress to repugnance.

    In response to what was universally acknowledged as the most exciting faunatic discovery of the millenium, local officials had been jostling for a spot under the limelight, trying to manage access-rights to the lake and its exotic inhabitants.

    The little sleepy town suddenly found itself besiged by reporters and camera crew, eager to get a slice of the action. CPC tourism officials smelled an opportunity to establish this non-descript region on the travel map. The discovery was seen as a financial boon, a saviour for the SARS-hit economy, and plans were underway capitalise on the "tianchi hai-guay", as the lake dragon was affectionately called.

    According to the Beijing Youth Daily, some locals however had other plans. "Hai-guay roan chao" or reproductive organs of the dragon produce acetylsalicylic acid, and are legendary in ancient Chinese medicine for their treatment of cephalgia. As news of this discovery spread, thousands of Chinese placed advance orders for the miracle medicine, causing locals to poach the unsuspecting gentle giants to extinction.

    Local officials were taken off guard, and as provincial forestry bureau vice-director Zhang Lufeng said, "We expected the locals to treat hai-guay as their own babies, not as tigers or bears to be exploited for money". He was bitter about external influence, saying, "It was all ok until the news reached Guangdong. I mean, last year they decimated our civet population, and now this. Why do they have to destroy our fragile ecosystem ?"

    Travel companies had made mass bookings, new roads were built, hotels had extended capacity - all in anticipation of a massive influx of provincial tourists. Now all hopes of a tourism-driven economic recovery disappeared along with the hai-guay, and angry people are looking to place the blame. A CPC ministerial level enquiry is called to look into the incident, and to redress public grievances.

    Officials say they'll have to import monsters from other countries to fulfil the growing demand ahead of the tourist season, and are currently negotiating with friendly neighbouring countries to loan their freaks of nature. On the condition of anonymity, Zhang said that he had put in a request with local CPC chiefs to obtain the shiang-gang Bighead Carp as a backup. "After all", he says, sipping his rhino-horn soup, "I heard the people of shiang-gang are getting rid of their monsters".
    report from Beijing Youth Daily