NBC News has reported that a group of Chinese scientists and explorers are looking for help to mount a new search for the country’s answer to Bigfoot, known locally as the “Yeren” or “wild man.”
Witnesses describe a creature that walks upright, almost 7-feet tall and with grey, red or black hair all over its body. Over the past few decades, more than 400 people have claimed sightings of the half-man, half-ape Yeren in a remote, mountainous area of the central province of Hubei, stated news agency Xinhua.
Expeditions in the 1970s and 1980s yielded hair, a footprint, excrement and a sleeping nest suspected of belonging to the Yeren, but there has been no conclusive proof, the report added. Now the Hubei Wild Man Research Association is looking for volunteers from around the world to join them on another expedition to look for the Yeren. Luo Baosheng, the vice president of the group, had this to say:
“We want the team members to be devoted, as there will be a lot a hard work in the process.”
The team is currently trying to raise 10 million yuan — approximately $1.5 million — and is talking to companies and other bodies to secure the funding, so there is no timetable yet for when they may start, the report added.
China is no stranger to cryptozoology. Tales abound of mysterious, LAKE MONSTERS such as the KANASI LAKE MONSTERS and the WUHNAN TOADS living in lakes in remote parts of the country. Tibetans have also long talked about the existence of the YETI, or “Abominable Snowman,” in the high mountains of their snowy homeland.
