The 8 Most Haunted Places in China – Haunted Houses, Haunted Villages and Even Haunted Hotels

In 1949 the Nationalists fled the Communists and went to Taiwan. The wife of one high-ranking official, abandoned by her husband, hung herself from the rafters of their Baroque Beijing mansion, known as Chaonei No. 81.

The New York Times recently reported the story, discussing how the place has become a popular tourist destination. In fact, there are a number of interesting haunted Chinese destinations, anything from haunted hotels to haunted opera houses to haunted highways where the ghosts stand in the middle of the road and sometimes even climb inside your car…

“In many ways, the road is like a zombie virus, killing and adding to its undead ranks and killing more through ghosts appearing out of nowhere in front of drivers.”

1. Burma Inn – A guest at this Beijing hotel was poisoned years ago by the head chef. Stricken with guilt, the chef stabbed himself to death that same evening. The ghost of the murdered guest now haunts the hotel, looking for the murderous chef.

2. Huguan Huiguan Opera House – The house, built in 1807 as a home for the poor, unfortunately seems to have been built on top of an ancient graveyard. It now serves as an opera house and museum and, big surprise, is utterly haunted. Guests commonly hear sounds of human shouting but see no one.

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3. Yun Shan Fan Dian Hotel – The hotel is located in Chengde, a small city in the mountains northeast of Beijing and is haunted by a man in western-style clothing and a woman in ancient Chinese attire. The couple is known to spook about the end of the hallway on the eighth floor.

4. Forbidden City – For six centuries the Forbidden City served as the Chinese imperial palace. Which means it was home for the royal family, along with all their advisors, attendants and concubines. Throughout the centuries numerous murders of power and passion have occurred within the palace’s walls. Visitors often see ghosts of eunuchs and brides-in-waiting walking the halls. A soldier named Fat Fu who served as a Forbidden City guard in the mid-1990s told a story of how two of his companions encountered a suspicious woman with long hair and a black gown. The soldiers yelled at her, but she ran away. Figuring she was a thief, they chased the woman for some distance and cornered her at a locked door. They ordered her to turn around. When she did the men screamed in horror, the woman had no face—she was a ghost.

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5. Great Wall of China – The wall stretches for more than 5,000 miles and was built to protect the Chinese Empire from invasion by militant nomadic groups. Some sections were constructed as early as the 7th century BC. More than 1 million soldiers are estimated to have died building the wall and many travelers have reported seeing apparitions walking the wall or hearing the sound of marching footsteps but seeing no people. Many of the ghost stories focus on a part of the wall north of Beijing known as The Wild Wall. Recently, several hikers died along this portion of the wall. “Those deaths were chalked up to fatal falls and lightning strikes, but not everyone believes the reports,” states the website of the American TV show, Destination Truth, which traveled to China to sleuth out the mystery. The show reported that at the spot where the deaths occurred, villagers regularly have encounters with long-dead soldiers. The show’s host, Josh, saw “cat-like movement in the distance”, along with a crashing noise, the smell of fire and a strange animal calling. Josh stopped in his tracks, reads the show’s website, “feeling someone — or something— is messing around with video equipment in his backpack. Nobody is near him.”

6. Dead Fengman Village – The village is located in the valley of a nameless mountain in Henan Province in northern China. It’s a region of hills and forests and hikers are drawn to the area, which still preserves “mysterious and ornate traditions”, according to a post on Cultural-china.com. The website describes the story of a hiker named Maitreya, who was camped along the river outside the village with some friends. Intent on scaring his companions, Maitreya crept up on a ridge above them and called out their names in the dark. To his surprise, he heard a strange and gloomy voice calling his own name back to him.

7. Sai Ying Pun Community Complex – The Hong Kong building looks like the stereotypical haunted house, with eerie yellow lights, empty verandas and massive stone arches that cast long shadows. The home was built in 1892 as a residence for European nurses. According to urban legend, the building was seized by Japanese troops during World War II and used as an execution hall. After the war it was converted into a mental asylum, but abandoned in 1961. Since then there has occurred a series of fires. “Through the years, there have been repeated sightings of a devilish figure in traditional Chinese costume bursting into flames on the second floor of the place,” reads the website Cultural-china.com. “Headless poltergeists have also reportedly been seen running down the corridors in the dead of night.”

8. Tuen Mun Road – Not just a haunted home or building, an entire haunted highway. The road connects two villages in greater Hong Kong, Tuen Mun and Tsuen Wan, and apparently has been haunted for hundreds of years. But the hauntings seem to be on the uptick. A 2012 article in the South China Morning Post reported that from 2010-2012 there were some 250 accidents on the road. The accidents are said to be the result of drivers trying to avoid hitting ghosts that suddenly materialize in the middle of the road. Some drivers have even reported that ghosts took control of their vehicles. “It is also said that the number of ghosts on the road is increasing as many previous crash victims remain on the road to haunt it,” the website, Dangerousroads.org, reports. “In many ways, the road is like a zombie virus, killing and adding to its undead ranks and killing more through ghosts appearing out of nowhere in front of drivers.”