CHINESE LOCH NESS MONSTER?

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In China, Hunt on for Loch Ness Monster By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer

Sat Nov 5, 5:12 PM ET

LAKE KANASI, China - The moon is barely a crescent in the sky as dusk darkens

the milky green surface of Lake Kanasi.

 

Four people huddle on the edge of a floating wooden dock, eyes scanning this

mountain lake near China's remote northwestern frontier with Central Asia. Small

waves lap at their shoes.

 

In a soft voice, Yuan Guoying recounts his two sightings of the creatures. The

first over there, from a cliff, Yuan says. Then again, 19 years later.

 

From the group comes a squeal as tiny, silver fish dart at hunks of bread they

have dropped in.

 

" Look! There are so many of them! " says one girl. " But where's the lake

monster? "

 

Another 40 minutes pass. A chill breeze kicks up.

 

Yuan is unfazed.

 

" We can wait all night, " he says. " Let's see if this is our fate. "

 

___

 

They have come by the tens of thousands over the years — skeptical scientists,

curious tourists — answering the lure of the mysterious " Kanasi Huguai, " China's

very own version of the Loch Ness monster.

 

On this particular trip, part class reunion, part tour package, there are a

handful of Yuan's university buddies and their wives (mostly retired professors

from Beijing with graying hair and quiet humor), three teachers, a nurse, a

local reporter, a university student, a lab technician and her mother. They have

flown thousands of miles to Xinjiang Province and been driven 15 hours to get to

the lake and commemorate the 20th anniversary of Yuan's first sighting of the

monsters.

 

The outing shows how far 40 years of economic reform have taken China and how

much more time and money people have to explore interests that were squelched as

superstition, an offense to communist dogma.

 

In today's society, myth-making and chasing are a big business, and the

supernatural and the paranormal are no longer taboo.

 

Reports of a Chinese " Bigfoot " have been picked up by the official Xinhua News

Agency, while tourists have searched for the " Xiao Yeren, " small wild men. UFO

sightings are treated with great seriousness. A conference on the topic was held

in September, and UFO buffs claim support from eminent scientists and liaisons

with the country's secretive military.

 

Yuan, a researcher at the Xinjiang Institute of Environmental Protection, hands

out Monster T-shirts, and on the bus the passengers watch state television's

elaborate, three-part documentary on the myth of the beasts that supposedly have

dragged sheep and cows from the shore and devoured them.

 

It opens with a dramatized scene of a man stopping his horse-drawn cart by the

lake on a foggy night. With a loud splash, something emerges from the water and

the camera darkens ...

 

Yuan's photos of the creatures flash across the screen. One, taken from a

distance, features several blurry forms clustered close to shore, some looking

as long as nearby fir trees. Grainy footage filmed in June by a tourist from

Beijing shows frenzied bubbling in the water.

 

Yuan, a cheerful 66-year-old with an unlined face and penetrating voice, is

featured in several interviews, along with other scientists and people who have

witnessed the creatures. Some describe enormous shapes and shadows as big as

trees and boats, sometimes tinged with red or white. In 2003, when an earthquake

struck the area, witnesses in a boat reported seeing a silhouette as long as 70

feet leap out of the water.

 

" I said it was rubbish at first, " says Yuan. " The next day, I saw them. "

 

" It's fish. Giant fish, some about 15 meters (50 feet) long. "

 

___

 

In 1980, Yuan was part of a team of 150 experts who launched the first

scientific study of the lake's environment and its flora and fauna.

 

It was then that he met Chinese Mongolians living in the area known as the Tuwa

people and heard the ancient legend of the monsters in Kanasi. Few details were

available; most of the villagers fell silent when pressed.

 

Five years later, still intrigued, Yuan headed another team to study

environmental protection for the lake — and to search for the creatures of the

Tuwa myth.

 

Within a day, he had his first sighting.

 

" They looked like tadpoles coming up for breath, " Yuan recalls. " Their eyes were

huge. Their mouths were gaping. "

 

After weeks of study, Yuan and his team discovered dozens of huge red fish, each

30-50 feet long and weighing more than four tons, living in the lake.

 

In 1989, scientists concluded that the fish — a type of giant, freshwater salmon

that thrives in frigid, deep, waters — were in all likelihood the monsters.

 

Despite that conviction, there remains a niggling doubt.

 

Yuan says the largest Taimen salmon scientists have captured is just 12 feet

long and weighs 220 pounds. The biggest caught in Kanasi is 4 feet, 9 inches

long, according to the documentary — a flat-headed specimen with a mouth full of

razor-sharp teeth.

 

So are the lake monsters really the giant salmon? Or something completely

different?

 

" There is no doubt the so-called lake monster is a kind of fish, the Taimen

salmon, " says Jiang Zuofa, a professor at the Heilongjiang Aquatic Research

Institute in northeastern China. He says he has seen up to 50 of them — some

more than 12 feet long — from the top of a mountain.

 

" The species is big and ferocious and lives in cold, fresh water, " he says in a

telephone interview. " We believe it is possible for them to eat chickens, geese

and sheep, but it is impossible for them to eat cattle. "

 

The People's Daily, the sober mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party,

weighed in recently.

 

" Scientists say with certainty that there simply can't be so-called 'lake

monsters' in the world, " its Web site said.

 

___

 

Lake Kanasi is 200,000 years old, roughly 15 miles by a mile, and more than

4,000 feet up in the Kanasi nature reserve in Xinjiang's northernmost tip, where

China, Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan converge in snowcapped mountains. It is

603 feet deep at its lowest.

 

Throughout summer, up to 4,000 tourists a day flock here. All day long, boats

chug along the lake, packed with " huguai " spotters.

 

" Everyone in the country has heard of it, " a visitor surnamed Zhou says. " It may

be a rich fairy tale but the scenery is so beautiful — plus there's this

mysterious creature. How can we not come? "

 

Surprisingly, there is scant monster publicity at the site. A souvenir shop had

but one book about the lake which mentioned the huguai. On the back of a bus

ticket a challenge is delicately posed: " The elusive lake monsters await your

pursuit. "

 

" We believe there are unidentified creatures in the lake, but we can't say for

sure what they are, " says Zhao Yuxia, a spokeswoman for the reserve. " We've

never seen them with our own eyes. "

 

Even so, there are measures in place to protect the area's wildlife — whatever

they may be. Fishing and swimming are banned. Boats are under a strict speed

limit.

 

As Yuan and his group stroll along the shores, he relives his second sighting,

just last year.

 

" It seemed like they were trying to get some sun. Their whole bodies came up to

the surface. Their shadows were like one huge roll of plastic — long and black.

They shimmered. I couldn't tell at all that they were fish. "

 

___

 

No monsters present themselves to Yuan's group during their nighttime visit to

the lake.

 

But still, Qu Yuan, a 26-year-old nurse, is thrilled.

 

" I kept my eyes on the water, " she says, beaming. " The waves were lapping at our

feet. It was almost like we were one with the lake. "

 

She adds: " I couldn't see anything but I could feel there was life out there. It

was a wonderful feeling. "

 

But Yuan wants more.

 

He has written two books and numerous essays on the mystery. He says he is asked

to speak on it regularly by different schools and organizations, and gets calls,

letters and photos from people who think they may have seen the huguai.

 

What's the next step then in his quest to find the truth?

 

To catch a fish and study it, Yuan says. But it's not easy on a lake this big.

 

On the last day of their visit, Yuan's group treks up to the " Fish Viewing

Pavilion, " perched high on a mountain overlooking the lake. Thousands of

tourists are snapping photos.

 

Breathless and hopeful, Yuan stands on a nearby bluff, hands shielding his eyes

from the sun as he looks down onto the water, hoping for a glimpse of the

monsters to honor the 20th anniversary of his first sighting.

 

" It's hard, it's hard, " he mutters to himself as he starts a video camera

rolling. " They can be anywhere. "

 

After an hour or so of moving from point to point, a downcast Yuan gives up.

 

As he begins his descent, he takes one last look at the vista.

 

" All right, " he says. " We're done here. "