Monsters spotted in China (?)

["n g" <ratites637@hotmail.com>]

Saw this as I was checking my mail.  Thought some on the list might find it 
interesting.

Nick Gardner


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http://www.msnbc.com/news/939825.asp?cp1=1

         Look out! Monsters spotted in China
Mysterious sightings revive century-old Chinese legend

BEIJING, July 16 ? 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, one to two 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 three 
to four feet long. It also had a white ring separating its neck and torso 
and smooth, grey skin.

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