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In China, hunt on for Loch Ness monster
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-06 11:26 They have come by the tens of thousands over the years — skeptical
scientists, curious tourists — answering the lure of the mysterious "Kanasi
Huguai," China's very own version of the Loch Ness monster.
On this particular trip, part class reunion, part tour package, there are a
handful of Yuan's university buddies and their wives (mostly retired professors
from Beijing with graying hair and quiet humor), three teachers, a nurse, a
local reporter, a university student, a lab technician and her mother. They have
flown thousands of miles to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and been driven 15
hours to get to the lake and commemorate the 20th anniversary of Yuan's first
sighting of the monsters.
The outing shows how far 40 years of economic reform
have taken China and how much more time and money people have to explore
interests that were squelched as superstition, an offense to communist dogma.
In today's society, myth-making and chasing are a big business, and the
supernatural and the paranormal are no longer taboo.
Reports of a Chinese "Bigfoot" have been picked up by the official Xinhua
News Agency, while tourists have searched for the "Xiao Yeren," small wild men.
UFO sightings are treated with great seriousness. A conference on the topic was
held in September, and UFO buffs claim support from eminent scientists and
liaisons with the country's secretive military.
Yuan, a researcher at the Xinjiang Institute of Environmental Protection,
hands out Monster T-shirts, and on the bus the passengers watch state
television's elaborate, three-part documentary on the myth of the beasts that
supposedly have dragged sheep and cows from the shore and devoured them.
It opens with a dramatized scene of a man stopping his horse-drawn cart by
the lake on a foggy night. With a loud splash, something emerges from the water
and the camera darkens ...
Yuan's photos of the creatures flash across the screen. One, taken from a
distance, features several blurry forms clustered close to shore, some looking
as long as nearby fir trees. Grainy footage filmed in June by a tourist from
Beijing shows frenzied bubbling in the water.
Yuan, a cheerful 66-year-old with an unlined face and penetrating voice, is
featured in several interviews, along with other scientists and people who have
witnessed the creatures. Some describe enormous shapes and shadows as big as
trees and boats, sometimes tinged with red or white. In 2003, when an earthquake
struck the area, witnesses in a boat reported seeing a silhouette as long as 70
feet leap out of the water.
"I said it was rubbish at first," says Yuan. "The next day, I saw them."
"It's fish. Giant fish, some about 15 meters (50 feet)
long."
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