Lake Tianchi monster is the name given to one or several lake monsters that allegedly live in Heaven Lake (known as Cheonji in Korean) or Lake Tianchi, within the Changbai Mountains of Jilin Province, China, not far from the North Korean border.
Description/Morphology
More recent reports describe the monster as having a human-like head attached to a 1.5 m neck. It is said to have a white ring around the bottom of its neck, and the rest of its skin is grey and smooth.
Habitat
Lake Tianchi is located in the north-eastern Jilin province near the border of North Korea, in China. The lake is 1,243 feet deep and has had some volcanic activity in the last 300 years.
Sightings
- The first reported sighting was in 1903. It was claimed that a large buffalo-like creature attacked three people, but was shot six times. The monster then retreated under the water.
- In 21 to 23 August 1962, a person using a telescope saw two of the monsters chasing each other in water. More than a hundred people reported the sightings.
- In 2007, Zhuo Yongsheng, a Chinese TV reporter said he had shot a 20-minute video of six unidentified creatures in the volcanic lake on 6 September. He later sent still photos to Xinhua's Jilin provincial bureau. According to a news report one of these showed the six "Nessies" swimming in parallel in three pairs. Another one of them featured the animals closer together, leaving circular ripples on the lake surface. Zhuo said he had seen the six seal-like, finned creatures swimming and frolicking in the lake for an hour and a half, before they disappeared around 7:00 a.m. "They could swim as fast as yachts and at times they would all disappear in the water. It was impressive to see them all acting at exactly the same pace, as if someone was giving orders," he said. "Their fins—or maybe wings—were longer than their bodies."