Chinese Lake Monsters Shot
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 10th, 2007
A TV reporter said he shot a 20-minute video of six “Lake Tianchi Monsters,” near the border with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Zhuo Yongsheng, who works for a local TV station run by the administration office of the nature reserve at Mount Changbaishan, Jilin, has sent pictures of the Loch Ness-type creatures to Xinhua’s Jilin provincial bureau.
One of them showed the creatures swimming in three pairs, in parallel. Another showed them together, leaving ripples on the surface of the deep, volcanic lake.
Zhuo, director of the TV station’s news center, said he shot the video and photos last Thursday.
“I went on top of the southern slope of the mountain with two local guides at 5:05 AM hoping to shoot the sunrise,” he said. “I was not able to do that because it was cloudy.”
By 5:26 AM there was a clear view of Tianchi Lake at the foot of the mountain. “Du Baiqing, one of the guides, suddenly pointed to the lake and yelled in amazement that a stone had emerged from nowhere”, Zhuo told Xinhua.
He focused his lens on the black moving object in the center of the lake and five other forms emerged from the deep water.
Zhuo said he witnessed the six seal-like, finned creatures swimming and frolicking in the lake for an hour and a half, before they ducked out of sight at 7:00 AM.
“They could swim as fast as yachts and at times they would disappear under the water. It was impressive to see them all swimming at exactly the same pace, as if someone was giving orders,” he said. “Their fins – or maybe wings – were longer than their bodies.”
Zhuo said he previously did not believe in legends about lake monsters. “But I believed what I saw with my own eyes.”
Rumors the volcanic lake harbors some sort of monster have been circulating for more than a century.
Scientists, however, have dismissed the rumors saying the lake was too cold for large creatures.
Source: ‘Tianchi Monster’ Caught on Film, Xinhua News Agency, September 10, 2007.
Thanks to Wayne Fenner.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
A most intriguing report. I hope someone will make the footage available for viewing soon. It should prove interesting and if it has a ring of truth, the Chinese surely have the resources to locate large vertebrate creatures in this lake.
It will be interesting if we are able to see this footage, and how good it turns out to be.
Is this the same lake similar footage was shot at in China not too long ago? That footage was rather dissapointing, as it was shot from above and far away. The images could have been boats for all we know. If this footage is closer, and more detailed it will be very interesting.
Yay, more Chinese lake monsters! I think they might actually be real…=]! But where are the photos?
The suspense is kill’n me. Where are the photos and video? Draw me a picture, something, anything.
This is the one cryptozoology story that’s intrigued me in a long, long time. If they find something, this could trigger a whole stampede of cryptoexpeditions into unexplored Asian wilderness, backed by serious scientific institutions and money.
Very exciting!
Otters…swimming in a row… 🙂
“Fins longer than bodies”, “Seal-like”…Could be plesiosaurs or a new seal that is unknown to this point. Maybe something we’ve never found bones of even. Footage please…
Thanks to Loren for posting this story here. The objects are not as clear as those in the Kanas Lake video of July 15th, 2007.
Yes, this footage would be nice to see.
Cold water rules out reptiles, so it sounds like a mammal or a fish. On the other hand, dinosaurs were warm-blooded, too. Who knows?
Could possibly be giant salamanders who can grow 6 to 8 feet in length and sometimes swim in a row like otters. They are only found in the far east I believe.
i wouldn’t generally rule out reptiles because of cold water … there are plenty examples for amphibian and reptilian life in cold water. sea turtels are being sighted again and again in the northern hemisphere. and in the freezing waters of japanese ponds and rivers live giant salamanders, that are anything but warmblooded.
Considering some of the large fish in the Far East (Chinese Paddlefish, Mekong Catfish, etc) I wouldn’t be particularly surprised to find a new (or forgotten) species of large fish in this lake.
Although I would be even more thrilled if it turned out to be a new species of mammal ^-^
Still extraordinary claims do require extraordinary evidence, so I’ll have to contain my excitement until we at least see some footage.