From 1976-77, the Chinese Government sponsored an expedition
of 100 researchers to the Shennongjia Mountain Forest in
search of the Yeren (wildman) who has been seen there. That
trip produced samples of hair, footprints and feces from an
undiscovered species, possibly the missing link between man
and ape. According to a 1988 report, an analysis of hair
samples allegedly taken from the wildman proves he exists.
Government-sponsored expeditions have documented many Yeren
sightings among local residents. Reports describe him as
about 9 feet tall, with large feet, red hair and terrible
body odor. He's apparently a vegetarian.
Yuan Zhenxin, a paleoanthropologist from the Chinese Academy
of Sciences, believes that 1,000 to 2,000 Chinese Yeren are
currently roaming the dense forests of the mountainous area.
There have been interactions with locals that resembled
crude attempts at communication. Yuan says he has personally
investigated stories of abduction, including two cases where
farmers were kidnapped by the creature but managed to
escape. Some of these Yeren interactions have been sexual in
nature.
Liu Minzhuang, a biology professor who has been researching
the Yeren for more than 20 years, spoke to an elderly
witness who accompanied soldiers as they tracked eight
wildmen through thick forests for 10 days in 1947. One Yeren
was eventually killed and dismembered by the soldiers, the
man says, but records of the incident have been lost.
Skeptics say that China has been influenced by Bigfoot
stories from abroad, but wildman sightings in China date
back thousands of years, before there was any contact with
the West. A statesman-poet named Qu Yuan, who lived in the
third century BC, referred to "mountain ogres" in his
verses. A seventh century historian described a tribe of
"hairy men" living in the same region, and an 18th century
poet spoke of a creature "monkey-like yet not monkey" in an
adjoining province.
Loren Coleman knows all about Bigfoot and his friends. To
learn more, read ?Mysterious America? and ?The Mothman and
Other Curious Encounters?,
click here.
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