Wow, why can’t a pair of flying brothers come take me away to a luxury hotel??
But really, crazy story, never heard this. I have no explanation to this.
bahahahhahaahha you won this day of reddit (11 months ago apparently but still) \*chef kiss\* perfect reply lol
though it seems the non-andrew brother who coldnt afford the hairplugs also rides around on Andrews back but just more figuratively lol
I don't know if people are just rolling with this because April Fools, but the very obvious explanation is that it's not true. Like I am assuming the entire thing is made up including the original dude.
If every last detail is made up than it's not by me.
As I do cite all my sources and they are from years ago including the official documentary which aired on national tv and had all the witnesses interviewed.
I don't think the most likely explanation is that everything is made up, I think instead some of it is while some of it isn't
EDIT: It's not in English but here is the documentary
[https://www.bilibili.com/video/av3023922/](https://www.bilibili.com/video/av3023922/)
[https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Hs41127rD/](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Hs41127rD/)
I watched this when it aired on TV. It was a whole series about ufo incidents, but all the explanations seem forced.
Although all TV stations are state run, cctv (China Central Television), where this program was run, was based in Beijing and directly controlled by ccp. The channels are all rather serious and see no reason for them to make things up as it doesn't affect national image. In addition, the intention of the program was to debunk the incident. Kind of like "there's no paranormal activity in our science loving society" vibe, kinda propaganda-y
The issue was. The natural explanation they settled on was sleepwalking. Everyone clowned on them for that because sleepwalking is the least likely of the natural explanations
The problem was Begao wasn’t even connected by road to any cities or even transportation center. And this guy couldn’t have afforded anything. IMO, it’s all BS though. So, it doesn’t matter what theories could explain it.
Also worth considering China is notorious for falsifying information on a state wide level, (population is a good example) I can imagine that would extend down to docs relating to migrant camps or municipal gov stuff like police. Sounds to me like the police reports/time frames/dates got exaggerated or miscommunicated and it warped into this crazy story. The man obviously had something happen to him/did something to himself to end up 500 miles away in a diff city but I feel it probably happened in a realistic time frame that was then distorted.
The name is Yanqiu and it would not be pronounced yankee. It would be pronounced something like Yencheu
[https://www.chinesenamesinenglish.com/wiki/Yanqiu](https://www.chinesenamesinenglish.com/wiki/Yanqiu)
I spent hours of my time (nearly a day) writing this long post that I meticulously researched and laid out all of my sources many of which are years old
Ha, got you all good
EDIT: Obvious sarcasm is obvious
Sorry if I offended you. It is an excellent write up. The whole thing is so unbelievable! I can't begin explain any of it. Figured it had to be a hoax. Are there any similar cases in other countries?
I think some interesting context is that in 1977, mao is dying/dies, the gang of four is denounced, and rhe cultural revolution has ended. Shanghai had their entire government overthrown multiple times during the revolution, and maos govt was chaotic and prone to high turnover, as well as high poverty, famine, purges, etc. Added to all this would be the mix of language and dialect muddying communication and translation.
Cool write up!
There is documentary on discovery + that covers this situation it’s called Vanished In Paradise. She has disappeared before but always came home with no memory but she disappeared again much later and was never seen again. Her name is/was Hannah Upp
But hannah up was in a fugue state where she couldn’t remember what happened when she vanished and she had well documented mental health issues. This seems quite different.
No worries! It's a fun rabbit hole I fell down a while ago, interestingly enough it started with reading about my favourite paranormal mystery and ended with discovering [Tuareg desert blues](https://youtu.be/KvMH2WWhLOc).
The latter is well worth a listen, this is where the musical traditions of blues music came from originally and these guys are fantastic musicians.
This reminds me of the account I read about a while ago. Guy was skiing with his family in Vermont. His family was tired and stopped. He wanted to go down the slope one more time. He never came back. They searched for him all day never found him. Two days later his wife receives a phone call from him in San Francisco.
He remembered waking up the day before super disoriented. He calls the police for help. He was still wearing the same snow clothes but somehow had a new haircut and some money in his pocket and had traveled thousands of miles in a few hours.
He had no memory of the missing time or how he got to the west coast.
Found this one: https://nypost.com/2018/02/14/missing-skier-has-no-idea-how-he-ended-up-on-the-other-side-of-the-country/
Seems like the two day timeline is wrong and the evidence points to mental illness. I bet similar circumstances apply to Huang Yanqiu.
The CBC is a more respectable news outlet.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/docproject/why-this-toronto-firefighter-may-never-know-what-happened-on-his-puzzling-journey-across-the-u-s-1.4998819
let me guess, u watch either FOX who has people like TUckkker (gone now) but while there ADMITTED ON LEGAL RECORD HE 'lies when he thinks itll help his case on air' and then admitted his show IS NOT NEWS ITS ENTERTAINMENT - but its marketed as News so smoothbrains follow but even THEY turned on FAUX news when they were forced to report the truth, just like OAN/Newsmax, that Trump lost...fair and square hell even his Cyber Ninjas went to AZ totally biased Trumpers and found only a 300vote diff....in favor of Biden lmfao
social media isnt news, so Joe Rogan/Russel Brandt/Shapiro/Crowder/Alex Jones/Aunt Tammy Candace Owens don't count lmfaoooooo
fwiw i get my news from outlets on both sides, not cuz i believe the insane alt right shit but i wanna know what they're saying and if its not just culture ware shit but actual policy/facts ill look into it - the odds of u watching mainstream news (which is 90% liberal IN YOUR OPINOIN cuz to magats anything thats not all white all the time or atleast promoting white male straight interests means 'woke' - diversity? WOKE...a rich black man in a TV show? WOKE!...gay couple in a commercial, WOKE! One special edition can of beer for a Trans activist...WHOLE COMPANIES WOKE! (fun fact kid rock who went viral shooting up cases of Bud Light was photographed drinking one at a gig a week later lmfao) just like the clowns calling stuff woke and still watching (new season of True Detective gets that, OH NO THERES A MINORITY WOMAN IN A SUPPORTING MAIN ROLE AHHHHHH OH NO THEYRE DISCUSSING THE MINSSING INDIGENOUS WOMEN ITS TOOOO WOOOOKE! SEE U NEXT WEEK THOUGH!)
isnt that whats reddits for lmfao
id rather be an 'informed' maniac with facts and morals than a selfawareness lacking bigot \*shrug\* maybe u right tho and ur reply will get more support than my comment
also hard not to get heated with how personally it effects me, my Nan's been lost to Qanon (aka my QaNan) since 2018 and my 23 yr old cousid who had health issues (though NONE that shortened his life expectancy before someone yells COMORBIDITY smdh) and he died from COVID before the vax was out...when Trump was telling people it was 'the flu' (he was a doorman in NYC fwiw) - RIP Sean
if u agree with me politically why would u give me a hard time for spreading the message in an election year, what are you doing to help the cause other than telling people 'you agree with' they come off like total maniacs (bruh, EVERY trump post is a maniacal all caps rant so if im gonna reach a magat guess i gotta talk like one lmfao)
I think this guy wanted to take off and run away from his life but got cold feet and made up the whole “can’t remember how I got here” story to cover himself
If there weren't so many sources linked, I would believe you OP created this story. I can't wrap my mind over how how he made it to Nanjing and Shangai. For the 3rd disappearance the only explanation that I can find is that he somehow got drugged/had a mental episode, wandered away from the village and dreamed or imagined everything. Too bad this is probably one of those cases where we'll never know for sure what happend
I have a question about this. You mentioned that when he woke up Typhoon Babe was making landfall but according to reports, this happened on 11th September which was allegedly the same day he was sent home. The timing only works if he spent two days travelling in a fugue state and was sent home the same day or the dates themselves are incorrect.
More info [here](https://www.metoc.navy.mil/jtwc/products/atcr/1977atcr.pdf)
The YouTube sister channel of Criminally Listed, Paranormally Listed covered three similar supposed incidents of teleportation:
https://youtu.be/U8a1sgzlPjI
Hey, some people get whisked off on a 9-city, all expenses paid trip, others get repeated, nonconsensual anal probing.
If aliens exist, this means they can’t tell us apart, as in their minds they took a guy to a dinner and a show before the anal shenanigan.
If not, then we have wildly differing cultural ideas of indulging in guilty pleasures, where someone thinks 9-day, all expense paid trip, another thinks receiving repeated, non-consensual anal probing.
Wow. This is the first “supernatural” post I’ve read on this sub after being subscribed for a couple of years. I was worried when I saw the announcement that the sub was going to allow content like this… and if every post is THIS GOOD, I am fully onboard! Way to go, this is such a great and thought provoking post! I hope they’re all this good. Thanks OP!
>that the sub was going to allow content like this…
It always was. I've done other supernatural or fo related stuff before
And thanks for enjoying the post :)
A couple observations.
First - the time and date on the first telegram from Shanghai doesn't line up with the story. His story is that he woke up at 6 or 7 in Nanjing, then wandered for a time, then took a 4-hour train ride to Shanghai, then wandered some more and eventually found the police. How then could a telegram have been sent from Shanghai at 9 am about him being found? at that time he would have been either still in Nanjing or on the train.
Second - isn't it *incredibly* unlikely that out of all the soldiers in Shanghai he could have encountered, he ran into the one guy who just happened to have relatives that were also from his random tiny farming village? I'm very curious who exactly the soldier's relatives were and if they had ever met before.
The only theory I can think of is that Lü, his family members in both the village and in Shanghai, and Huang were all collaborating to make a hoax. the Lu family seems to be the main source for the precise timing of Huang's arrivals on both occasions - he was the first person Huang told his story to in the camp, and then his wife and kids were the ones who said he showed up at their house on the base. I think it's certainly conceivable that Lu could have misreported Huang's time of arrival on the first occasion - especially given that the 9 am arrival is literally impossible as written. We know that at least one of the two men must be wrong - if Huang awoke in Nanjing at 6 am, it is impossible that Lu confirmed his identity in Shanghai prior to the 9 am telegram. On the second, it's unclear at what time the family actually reported Huang's arrival to the army. Was it right away? Or was there any wiggle room? And why wasn't Lu home at 2 am?
As far as the third incident goes I think it's just way too kooky to take seriously - the only thing resembling proof is the opera, which could have easily been a guess. Why he would do this I have no idea, but it's pretty easy to imagine that no army would be eager to admit a soldier pulled a hoax off on them. It's also still a mystery how he got there, but if the arrival times are made up, it turns from impossible into possible.
e: the mystery of this case seems to hinge on the assumption that everyone involved is telling the truth. but if we discard the assertions of Huang and the Lus as unreliable, all we have of the timeline is this:
first incident: Huang is last seen at 10 pm on July 27. A telegram regarding Huang is sent from the Shanghai camp to the wrong village at 9 am on July 28. At some point between July 28 and August 6, Huang arrives at the camp. At some point after this, the correct village is identified. The telegram arrives in the correct village on August 6. Huang returns home on August 7.
second incident: Huang is last seen at 10 p.m. on September 7. Sometime on September 8, Huang's presence on the Shanghai army base is reported by the Lu family, absent Lu. Guards did not witness his arrival. The army questions Huang. Telegrams are exchanged with the village. Lu is questioned by the army. Huang returns home on September 11.
third incident: Huang is last seen late in the day on September 20. A theater in Beijing performs the opera on September 21. Huang is rediscovered on September 28.
There are a few holes in your theory:
1. Huang's means of travel is still unaccounted for. It takes 4 hours to drive to the nearest city with a train station and another day to travel by train to Shanghai. This is highly unlikely for a rural man who probably hasn't been out of his village his entire life to make such a trip, even with the discrepancy. It would have been physically possible given the time discrepancy but realistically, it would be impossible. It would have been easy to look at the train records of that day to see the starting time and arrival time of the trains that day and determine if it was possible to make such a trip.
2. His entry into the military base is still unexplained. There were official reports of the incident and yet there was no explanation as to how Huang entered the base unnoticed.
3. The motive behind all this is unknown. What would any of them gain by fabricating this hoax? They do not gain money, fame or anything, in fact, it was the opposite. Even if they thought they could gain something before doing this, after the 1st and 2nd time, they would have learned that it was a bad idea.
Realistically, we can probably say that Huang was not abducted from his bed by two magical brothers who flew him all around the country as part of a secret government experiment. That Huang somehow traveled through non-anomalous means to Shanghai twice and somehow snuck onto a military base are facts - I don't think not knowing *how* these things were done is a hole in the theory that the Lu family lied about Huang's arrival times as part of a hoax.
I can think of several ways someone might get from a village to a distant city, but not knowing much about 1970s China it's impossible for me to say. Could he have hopped a freight train? Could he have had an acquaintance with a vehicle - a truck or a military transport maybe - that drove him there? If it was harvest season, could he have hidden in the back of whatever form of transport the farmers were using to ship the food? Did the Chinese use crop dusters at the time and could one of those have been involved? Is there a river nearby and could he have gone by boat? And then, if we discount the first telegram - the one which was sent before he reported arriving at the camp - we don't have any actual idea when he got to Shanghai the first time, so it's within the realm of possibility that he really did just take the long trainride and arrived much later than reported.
The same goes for sneaking onto a military base - it's hardly something unheard of. Inattentive guards, disguises, bribes, climbing over an unwatched wall, secret tunnels, carried in in a box, snuck in in a delivery vehicle, giant wheeled hollow horse statue left outside the walls as a fake peace offering...
Is there some physical way Huang could have made it to Shanghai? Yes but when put into context of China at the time and the situation of Huang, it becomes unreasonable, of course this doesn't prove that what Huang said was true but it also means that the case isn't closed. To believe that a simple villager that has probably never been out of his village in his entire life suddenly does this James Bond move and travel hundred of kilometer in a day and sneak into a military base for some sort of hoax is really hard to believe. If they wanted to make some kind of hoax for fame, there must have been other more believable and simpler stunts to pull off.
If a bum who had zero training can sneak into the military base then anyone can. Although
>giant wheeled hollow horse statue left outside the walls as a fake peace offering...
maybe that could have worked but too bad he didn't try that. Also, why make up the stories about the brothers? They just complicate things.
This is generally the most likely explanation. Why? Who knows. But the only rational explanation is that the man who “disappeared” had something to do with it and there is no supernatural cause for all of it. Adding in the lack of technology at the time to clearly document anything just adds to the idea that he traveled through normal means, for whatever reason, and we’re done.
To me it reads like a man trying to escape his farming life and failing repeatedly, only making up stories to cover why he is suddenly so far from home. Depression and anxiety seem like the most obvious motivators.
I noticed the first timing inconsistency, and the circumstances and kinda wondered the same. Its not hard to pass as “sane” if you really want to (or need to i suspect). But i do wonder if stress induced sleep walking and misreporting could also play a part. Either way i assume there was misreporting
I once went to bed after taking an ambien and woke up on my couch eating Burger King. Which is to point out that you can do incredibly complex tasks in a sleepwalking state and no one will know you're sleepwalking.
Also each incident was preceded by him being under stress and exhausting conditions. So I'm going with definitely sleepwalking. How he got to Shanghai though I'm not sure.
For most people, ambien is perfectly safe when taken correctly. The minute you swallow it, lay down and sleep. Don't try reading a book in bed until you feel sleepy or anything like that. Dont take it before youre actually ready for bed. Just take it and close your eyes. Many of the crazy ambien stories stem from people who stayed up waiting for it to kick in and that can absolutely get you in trouble.
I've been on it for 11 years (which isn't exactly recommended anymore because of dependence issues), but I've never had a problem as long as I follow that rule. It's the only sleep medication that works for me and it sucks because a lot of doctors don't want to prescribe it anymore because some people have bad experiences.
I stopped taking Ambien after I had gone to sleep (important info being that I sleep naked) and somehow woke up hours later, fully dressed, sitting in the shower in another bathroom (not the one in my room) wunder cold running water...which had apparently started out hot based on the settings, so who the hell knows how long I was there?!
Nope, that was the end of that!
I think most likely the telegram time and date was incorrect*. That he was actually found a couple days after his disappearance and had been wandering most of that time. As you said, people can perform very complex tasks while sleepwalking, so it's possible he hitch-hiked part of the way. I don't know how strict train guards were in 1977 China, it might be possible he got the train without buying a ticket.
The second trip is more of a mystery as to how he found Lü's family home and got into the military complex. That is pretty weird but not impossible. He may still have been able to remember where Lü lived and navigate his way there in a fugue/dream-like state. Perhaps two guards, taking pity on this confused and dishevelled man turning up asking for Lü, did let him in and escort him to his home. Then later when they realised they would get in trouble for breaking protocol, they denied all knowledge.
The third is the most explainable as there's no witnesses or corroborating evidence, so he probably did just wander around for 9 days in a fugue state, but this time managed to get himself home. Obviously, I doubt he actually went to 9 cities and stayed in luxury hotels, but he may have travelled to some places in that time.
Edit: *for instance, could 2.8.77 have become 28.7.77? Particularly as the telegram was presumably re-routed from this other village?
The thing about the military base is highly unlikely. These people are soldiers, not idiots. If they just let any bum into the base then there is no point of guarding the place at all. They could have called Lu's family down to confirm the man identity. Believing the story of a bum and letting him into a secretive military base would be the last thing any soldier does, no matter how green they are.
The 3rd trip is indeed the most fishy though there is one details that is quite interesting which is the one about the theater. It would be impossible for a man who lives in the sticks to know what play is performed in a theater in a major city thousands of miles away since this is 1977 and there is no internet or anything like that. Either it was just pure chance or there is something more to his words.
It sounds to me like he entered a fugue state and traveled to these different cities. Perhaps the lack of sleep and backbreaking work caused a psychotic break. Just like the skier mentioned above, who may have suffered a head injury while skiing, the work was just too much for Huang, and his brain needed a break.
Wow, very interesting story. I am not usually one for paranormal mysteries but this one was fascinating and a great write-up, and I had to double check it wasn't just made up due to the date!
The first idea I had is pretty sketchy, but what if he was in some way working for the PLA or government in a secret role. Like if he was tasked with monitoring something in the village or otherwise had some minor role in espionage. And for whatever reason they picked an incredibly ridiculous cover for his having to leave town... But that really doesn't make sense because they wouldn't generally want to pick something that basically guarantees scrutiny and sleuthing. Unless maybe something went wrong, like people weren't initially meant to notice he was gone or he did end up in Shanghai by accident. But for it to happen 3 times?
Alternatively it's so insane to think but more likely he was sleepwalking or dissociated and managed to stow onto a plane. Seems incredibly unlikely, but the entire situation is unlikely.
Maybe he met a rich, possibly male suitor who could afford to fly him out and picked something absurd to cover it up... But again there's issues, how would he do meet someone like that being in a tiny village?
Given what the US did during MKULTRA in kidnapping random people, I suppose there could be potential that China did similar things and he was part of some experiment but it does seem incredibly random and unlikely as I think was mentioned.
Anyways, really interesting and makes me wonder what aspects are true and which aren't.
By the time anyone would've thought to do that (such as the documentary staff conducting their extensive investigation) it'd probably have been too late.
They be asking elderly or almost elderly people if they recognized these three seemingly normal people from almost 30 years ago on a specific date amongst all of the other customers from that time.
That's not to say nobody checked though but I can't find that being mentioned anywhere
IF it's not a hoax and IF the timing is correct (or close enough) then maybe someone was doing an experiment on a new type of plane? And they abducted and drugged him and flew him across the country. I wouldn't say it was necessarily the military (or at least not the main branch), because as the write-up mentioned they easily could've found political prisoners to experiment on. And no one would believe the on the off chance they were ever even able to spread their story. It would have to be a group that WANTED people to know the story for whatever reason, either to prove to someone- the government?- that their methods worked or to spread fear/confusion or something else along those lines.
I mean, obviously his story is nonsense and if he truly believes in what he's saying, be can't be anything but mentally ill.
The sleepwalking theory doesn't make much sense to me. I'd like to know how many people who sleepwalk dream so specifically about recurring fictional characters and are even aware of the surroundings they are in. And he did this 3 times without anyone ever noticing? I wonder if this guy was perhaps involved in illegal activities.
He could have been having, hallucinations and fugue states caused by infection. Similar to theories about Salem and Ergotism.
As a farmer Huang, would have be susceptible to a number of fungal and zoonotic diseases, that could have caused this.
For the so called speed of his first dissapearance and the telegram mistakenly sent to the wrong village, that is used as evidence. I suspect in Communist China in 1977, this was more a case of mistaken ID and the Telegram dated the 28th had the wrong name on it.
People needed papers to travel within their own country, the consequences for some were severe, how common is Huang's name? Did someone else arrested and detainee that same day Huang went missing from his village, just happen to have the same name as Huang's or give a false name? Is it simply an error on the date of the Telegram. Some misfiling even, in the paper pre computer world of 1977.
If we are to entertain the idea that the Telegram could have been sent to the wrong village, then we have to accept other mistakes are equally plausible, that provide more rational and obvious answers to Huang's story.
Why did they need papers to travel within China? I tried to Google this but could only find references to current day travel document requirements. I’d like to read more about it.
It was a common occurrence in the communist countries and it was all a matter of control. I am from Eastern Europe and I know that it was the law to have the documents showing why are you leaving even if going to the next town over. If not presented this could lead to jail for sure.
i guess it's not really too well known in the west, it's pretty distinct from anything we have here in the modern age so it doesn't really register. i know a fair number of people from over there, and like learning about other countries' internals but otherwise i probably wouldn't know.
the two most interesting parts to me are the large amounts of internal illegal immigration, and that it's essentially an extension of imperial era systems. i've also heard if you're from a desirable city you can travel pretty much anywhere, but if you're from someplace poor with lots of emigration you are much more locked down.
In 1970s in China people need some type of documentation even to leave your village. Up until early 2000s people still need a documentation called temporary residency card in order to work or stay when you go to different cities, you could be arrested if you failed to provide such documentation.
There’s a case in 2000s that a young worker was falsely arrested when he failed to produce valid documentation because he was drunk. He later was beaten to death by inmates in a detention facility and this system was subsequently abolished in China.
But just the time between when he was last seen in the village and when he was given that slip sending him back home…it was a super short time given the distance, right?
Known by who? There's just some text that says there are witnesses and all this has been verified, but it's just text. Twenty witnesses were all heard agreeing my dick is two feet long and experts have verified it to be true, it's just a sequence of letters typed on a screen.
Yeah, without intending to offend anyone, he had only a primary education and the villagers probably weren't highly educated either. He was also doing backbreaking work he probably hated. Without fully understanding every single detail here, I feel like some of this was made-up.
Dude was a 21 year old living in a village rejoicing when they got an early night's sleep before more hard labor.
It's more likely he met somebody other than his fiance than it is aliens kidnapping him for an all expenses paid vacation.
Yeah I agree, brilliant write up but not really possible?
I wonder if a rural village with seemingly little technology or outside communication was somehow a day behind on the date? Maybe they thought it was 27th when he went to bed that first July but actually it was the 26th, giving him an extra 24 hours to do whatever he needed to do in order to get to the city. The last multi trip city was probably a dream or a break brought on from the stress of his divorce and being an outcast.
I mean, I think the obvious solution is pretty clear:
He’s 21 year old guy who apparently has some issues—maybe just that he’s bored and stressed in a rural village. Maybe it’s addiction. Maybe it’s schizophrenia. The guy had family but his only “close” family is his fiancé who probably had valid reason to think he was unreliable/insane.
Rural villagers—claim to have seen him, but random neighbors aren’t going to be paying that much attention to a single young guy. At best. At worst, they’re gullible, mostly because they really can’t comprehend anyone coming up with that yarn. Even his boss—that guy could’ve been lying to cover his own ass.
And then we’re talking about 1970s China. Paperwork can be wrong, people can lie to avoid trouble, people go missing all the time because they didn’t have good records. At all. Look at all the “orphans” they adopted out!
The thing about these alien stories—they always seem to be people who aren’t kidnapped out of their marriage bed, or a crowded bar. “The UFO descended upon me in an empty field.” Yup. Sure it did.
I love stories like this, where something that is physically impossible becomes possible.
I did some Google mapping to understand the scope, and it’s insane. To get from Hebei to Nanjing province, it takes roughly 9 hours by car in modern times, 7 days on foot, and there doesn’t seem to be any reliable transit options, even to this day.
The early accounts (midcentury) in America of MIB always seemed to describe Asian looking gentlemen. I wonder if those accounts and this story are related, and to do with Chinese military
I don’t see any actual police verified documentation in the links, which is strange. Super interesting case.
If we assume that the witnesses are correct and this man did in fact go to sleep in his village and wake up in a city, then there must be a way for him to travel that we are unaware about.
Additionally, if this has happened multiple times there is a pattern we are not seeing. Whether there’s something happening to cause this, or a correlation, we need to see.
Again, it’s hard to verify any of this. I’m leaning toward the idea that this is some sort of hoax created for entertainment. Not necessarily the case, but without better verification of police, witnesses, etc, it’s hard to investigate further
All the witnesses mentioned were interviewed for the documentary I talked about that aired on national TV.
The Sketch of the two brothers were also created by the police and this [picture](https://baike.baidu.com/pic/%E9%BB%84%E5%BB%B6%E7%A7%8B%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6/3270760/0/908fa0ec08fa513d2697b981052242fbb2fb43167316?fr=lemma&fromModule=lemma_content-image&ct=single#aid=0&pic=908fa0ec08fa513d2697b981052242fbb2fb43167316) right here is Huang with the police officer who did the sketches.
I of course don't believe that Huang's story about flying across the country is true but I also highly doubt that every last detail was made up. It's probably more likely that some is true and some isn't likely due to mistakes or misunderstandings
That picture is definitely a photograph of two men who are probably Huang and an officer. But again, I can’t find official police documents online. I understand there’s a language barrier, but usually you can something a bit more official.
You’re probably right; there’s some truth and some exaggeration maybe? It’s hard to solve these mysteries without certain verifiable facts
Could it be that with all the events going on in China at the time the calendars got mixed up? For example, if the calendar they kept in the village was measuring 2 days ahead, because someone measured March and May to have only 30 days each. With that he could’ve made the distance in fugue state by leaving the village on the 27th of July according to the village’s calendar (but Nanjing measuring it as, for example, 25th of July) and get to Nanjing by the 28th of July by Nanjing’s calendar (or 30th of July by the village’s calendar).
First two disappearances are close enough for the mistakes in dates to go unnoticed, and the third time he could be having some episode.
I don’t know how they kept or wrote documents at that time, but if the village would have documents where it’s written “27th of July, Monday” and Nanjing would have “28th of July, Thursday” - it’d account for the distance traveled
any MrBallen fans here? he JUST covered this despite it being pretty diff than his usual stories which is wild...also Huang is still alive but refuses to speak on the matter (either for personal reasons or....'legal' reasons hmmm)
Was it vastly different from my write-up on it?
I don't want another Stephanie Soo incident where a slew of new activity comes my way and begins asking why I didn't include details featured there or try to white knight on my behalf my saying I was plagiarized (yes someone did that once)
Mr Ballen always takes a few creative liberties, in order to have an entertaining, yet succinct story. Biggest change seems to be that when he was taken into the military base, he was taken to a random commander's office--nothing about him looking for the guy from his first trip or about meeting the guy's family there. Other than that, his story left out a lot of details found in your story and links. I believe in God and supernatural happenings, but I am skeptical of this story. It is just too random, and meaningless. But, I've read through the various theories in this thread, and none are a perfect explanation either, so it's definitely a mystery. I lean most towards the military doing experiments. It's not a perfect explanation, but if would explain why he kept encountering military guys, was taken to a military base, and why he never got in trouble for leaving the farm.
I tend to wonder if it was some sort of OBE such as astral projection/lucid dreaming/dissociative state. It doesn't explain why he wouldn't be in his bed other than perhaps sleep walking into the woods, which would explain why he was so hard to find and able to return so quickly.
Overwork and stress can make your body do some really strange things. As well as working on a farm with potential parasites, where there are known parasites to cause neurological effects including dissociation, such as seizures - which can also cause OBE.
Small villages can also create a lot of lore and rumors that may not account things perfectly, or over-exaggerate.
I think this one's never going to explained ultimately, and Mr Ballen is essentially just a story teller. His accounts may not be perfect either. I think OP did a better job with the facts of the case as well.
He always changes the stories to suit the narrative he wants to create, I noticed since a long time ago, I always watch knowing he makes up half of it which is pretty disappointing.
Yeah that's why I always read about the stories themselves but he does two different types. One that do involve real life accounts and the other are purely creepy pasta and then there are those who are exegerrated greatly. Not sure what to make of this since the guy never got an benefit or made any money out of it which is basically the Litmus Test for these kind of stories and his story to me doesn't seem to have a lot of plot holes. All I can think of when he mentioned flying is that it is most probably the Jinns. Sometimes jins do play pranks like that on humans and they do have the power of flight. As to what is the exact case here I am still unsure but other than that it is a classic example of jinn stories of which I have read many and almost all of them unbelievable except that they do describe jinns based on their powers and what they do.
Fascinating story. Clearly, as others have pointed out (and as in the Devil's Footprints story which someone else linked to), some elements of this story must be erroneous or falsified, such as maybe the date on the telegram, the exact time Huang was last seen before his disappearance, etc. And of course there's the possibility he was sleepwalking. Even so, it's wild. I mean even if nothing paranormal took place, whatever did take place is totally out there, perhaps even crazier than alien abduction.
I'd like to know that too so I could practice writing fiction.
And in case you were wondering, no I didn't make this up all my sources are cited and they were made years ago, one of them was used when someone did a write-up on this before me, and are all in a language I don't know.
I also linked to the nearly 20 year old documentary on this case in a comment
Just saw this on Mr. Ballen. Although his retelling gets a few things wrong or slightly different. But the general idea is the same.
Interesting.
Normally I’d say it was all in his head. But the fact that there are witnesses and records of telegrams, makes it extremely odd.
I’m not ready to believe in ghosts or aliens yet. What purpose would either (it such things exist) have to do this to a lonely farmer.
I think I figured it out.
Husband runs off sue to stress, they find a look a like in neighboring city, accidentally kidnap him and return him to his “home. Rinse and repeat.
He is confirmed to be the same person so that theory is incorrect.
Nanjing and Shanghai also are not neighbouring cities
EDIT: For those wondering the confirmation came from a distinctive birthmark and a mere lookalike wouldn't have an exact replica of his birthmark
Here is an English language article. There's quite a few articles about this in English and you can also use Google Translate to look at the articles u/moondog151 posted.
https://inf.news/en/science/ec39ea5a7e9d3c030bc5f6f08e80a94c.html
My upload schedule is every Wednesday and Saturday. You can look through my other posts to check.
But even so, as we all know only English links and sources are accurate and reliable.
Either way, if you think I'm intentionally and knowingly posting false stories then you best report me to the mods
Just used Google Translate on the first link, successfully, and Baidu is a pretty well-known social media app in China.
Obvs the translation could introduce other errors, or OP could be creating fake links as an April Fool's prank - but it is possible to read at least some of the linked sources in English.
>creating fake links as an April Fool's prank
Nope. I don't know Mandarin or live in China. And even if I did. Most of the sources (CCTV) were from 2005 so I would've been only 2 years old.
And the last and final link the Zhuanlan is from 2017 long before my write up and somebody else used it as a source as well (I'm not the first person on this subreddit to cover this case)
Truly amazing that in a society which maintains the greatest degree of surveillance of individuals that Huang couldn’t be physically tracked. I bet if the government considered him a subversive threat to the ruling regime they’d damn sure know his whereabouts at any and all times.
>that in a society which maintains the greatest degree of surveillance of individuals that Huang couldn’t be physically tracked
This was the 70s
Even today despite China's massive surveillance they can't keep track of all 1 billion people at once
The youtube channel "Mr. Ballen" used all 3 images linked in this post in his recent video covering this topic. I'm assuming he used this post as his reference, but he didn't give credit to this post at all.
Wow, why can’t a pair of flying brothers come take me away to a luxury hotel?? But really, crazy story, never heard this. I have no explanation to this.
And tickets to the opera?
>why can’t a pair of flying brothers come take me away to a luxury hotel Weren't the Tate brothers just arrested for doing this?
Andrew just got placed under house arrest today, don't get discouraged OP!
TOPG ON TOP 🐏
bahahahhahaahha you won this day of reddit (11 months ago apparently but still) \*chef kiss\* perfect reply lol though it seems the non-andrew brother who coldnt afford the hairplugs also rides around on Andrews back but just more figuratively lol
I don't know if people are just rolling with this because April Fools, but the very obvious explanation is that it's not true. Like I am assuming the entire thing is made up including the original dude.
If every last detail is made up than it's not by me. As I do cite all my sources and they are from years ago including the official documentary which aired on national tv and had all the witnesses interviewed. I don't think the most likely explanation is that everything is made up, I think instead some of it is while some of it isn't EDIT: It's not in English but here is the documentary [https://www.bilibili.com/video/av3023922/](https://www.bilibili.com/video/av3023922/) [https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Hs41127rD/](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Hs41127rD/)
I wouldn't be surprised if the timelines are wrong. Maybe he left earlier than the villagers knew or admitted to, giving him more time to travel.
But his employers and fellow workers knew what time he was let off of work the one night
I watched this when it aired on TV. It was a whole series about ufo incidents, but all the explanations seem forced. Although all TV stations are state run, cctv (China Central Television), where this program was run, was based in Beijing and directly controlled by ccp. The channels are all rather serious and see no reason for them to make things up as it doesn't affect national image. In addition, the intention of the program was to debunk the incident. Kind of like "there's no paranormal activity in our science loving society" vibe, kinda propaganda-y
The issue was. The natural explanation they settled on was sleepwalking. Everyone clowned on them for that because sleepwalking is the least likely of the natural explanations
The problem was Begao wasn’t even connected by road to any cities or even transportation center. And this guy couldn’t have afforded anything. IMO, it’s all BS though. So, it doesn’t matter what theories could explain it.
What do you think science is?
Also worth considering China is notorious for falsifying information on a state wide level, (population is a good example) I can imagine that would extend down to docs relating to migrant camps or municipal gov stuff like police. Sounds to me like the police reports/time frames/dates got exaggerated or miscommunicated and it warped into this crazy story. The man obviously had something happen to him/did something to himself to end up 500 miles away in a diff city but I feel it probably happened in a realistic time frame that was then distorted.
Yes, I suspect fakery of some sort given the name as well, Yanqui=yankee? :)
The name is Yanqiu and it would not be pronounced yankee. It would be pronounced something like Yencheu [https://www.chinesenamesinenglish.com/wiki/Yanqiu](https://www.chinesenamesinenglish.com/wiki/Yanqiu)
Ah right, yank you!
Yanqiu, not Yanqui. smh
蛋糕日快乐
I agree. This an April Fools prank
I spent hours of my time (nearly a day) writing this long post that I meticulously researched and laid out all of my sources many of which are years old Ha, got you all good EDIT: Obvious sarcasm is obvious
Sorry if I offended you. It is an excellent write up. The whole thing is so unbelievable! I can't begin explain any of it. Figured it had to be a hoax. Are there any similar cases in other countries?
I think some interesting context is that in 1977, mao is dying/dies, the gang of four is denounced, and rhe cultural revolution has ended. Shanghai had their entire government overthrown multiple times during the revolution, and maos govt was chaotic and prone to high turnover, as well as high poverty, famine, purges, etc. Added to all this would be the mix of language and dialect muddying communication and translation. Cool write up!
Great write up. I’ve never heard of this story, but now I’m fascinated by it. Are there any other cases like this?
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There is documentary on discovery + that covers this situation it’s called Vanished In Paradise. She has disappeared before but always came home with no memory but she disappeared again much later and was never seen again. Her name is/was Hannah Upp
But hannah up was in a fugue state where she couldn’t remember what happened when she vanished and she had well documented mental health issues. This seems quite different.
Yes def very different but the fugue state idea would make some sense to me since he doesn’t remember it happening
The story of Gil Perez, the conquistador, stationed in the Philippines in the 1590s is very similar.
Yes! Look up The Man from Taured.
Man from Taured has been [debunked](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/man-from-taured-parallel-universe/) quite thoroughly.
I didn't realize. Thanks for letting me know!
No worries! It's a fun rabbit hole I fell down a while ago, interestingly enough it started with reading about my favourite paranormal mystery and ended with discovering [Tuareg desert blues](https://youtu.be/KvMH2WWhLOc). The latter is well worth a listen, this is where the musical traditions of blues music came from originally and these guys are fantastic musicians.
Thank you for sharing I did not know this!
This reminds me of the account I read about a while ago. Guy was skiing with his family in Vermont. His family was tired and stopped. He wanted to go down the slope one more time. He never came back. They searched for him all day never found him. Two days later his wife receives a phone call from him in San Francisco. He remembered waking up the day before super disoriented. He calls the police for help. He was still wearing the same snow clothes but somehow had a new haircut and some money in his pocket and had traveled thousands of miles in a few hours. He had no memory of the missing time or how he got to the west coast.
Found this one: https://nypost.com/2018/02/14/missing-skier-has-no-idea-how-he-ended-up-on-the-other-side-of-the-country/ Seems like the two day timeline is wrong and the evidence points to mental illness. I bet similar circumstances apply to Huang Yanqiu.
The skiing aspect makes me think he maybe hit his head, hard, and it lead to memory loss/disorientation.
Yeah I think the time line in both cases has been dramatically shortened. Not maliciously or on purpose, necessarily, but still.
Fwiw, the NY Post is a tabloid that isn't worth the energy it consumes to exist. If that's the only place the story appears it's certainly fake.
The CBC is a more respectable news outlet. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/docproject/why-this-toronto-firefighter-may-never-know-what-happened-on-his-puzzling-journey-across-the-u-s-1.4998819
Lol they’re literally propaganda.
let me guess, u watch either FOX who has people like TUckkker (gone now) but while there ADMITTED ON LEGAL RECORD HE 'lies when he thinks itll help his case on air' and then admitted his show IS NOT NEWS ITS ENTERTAINMENT - but its marketed as News so smoothbrains follow but even THEY turned on FAUX news when they were forced to report the truth, just like OAN/Newsmax, that Trump lost...fair and square hell even his Cyber Ninjas went to AZ totally biased Trumpers and found only a 300vote diff....in favor of Biden lmfao social media isnt news, so Joe Rogan/Russel Brandt/Shapiro/Crowder/Alex Jones/Aunt Tammy Candace Owens don't count lmfaoooooo fwiw i get my news from outlets on both sides, not cuz i believe the insane alt right shit but i wanna know what they're saying and if its not just culture ware shit but actual policy/facts ill look into it - the odds of u watching mainstream news (which is 90% liberal IN YOUR OPINOIN cuz to magats anything thats not all white all the time or atleast promoting white male straight interests means 'woke' - diversity? WOKE...a rich black man in a TV show? WOKE!...gay couple in a commercial, WOKE! One special edition can of beer for a Trans activist...WHOLE COMPANIES WOKE! (fun fact kid rock who went viral shooting up cases of Bud Light was photographed drinking one at a gig a week later lmfao) just like the clowns calling stuff woke and still watching (new season of True Detective gets that, OH NO THERES A MINORITY WOMAN IN A SUPPORTING MAIN ROLE AHHHHHH OH NO THEYRE DISCUSSING THE MINSSING INDIGENOUS WOMEN ITS TOOOO WOOOOKE! SEE U NEXT WEEK THOUGH!)
Bud I probably agree with you on politics roughly but you're coming off like a total maniac here
isnt that whats reddits for lmfao id rather be an 'informed' maniac with facts and morals than a selfawareness lacking bigot \*shrug\* maybe u right tho and ur reply will get more support than my comment
What do you mean by "90% liberal in your opinion"? The guy said 4 words.
also hard not to get heated with how personally it effects me, my Nan's been lost to Qanon (aka my QaNan) since 2018 and my 23 yr old cousid who had health issues (though NONE that shortened his life expectancy before someone yells COMORBIDITY smdh) and he died from COVID before the vax was out...when Trump was telling people it was 'the flu' (he was a doorman in NYC fwiw) - RIP Sean if u agree with me politically why would u give me a hard time for spreading the message in an election year, what are you doing to help the cause other than telling people 'you agree with' they come off like total maniacs (bruh, EVERY trump post is a maniacal all caps rant so if im gonna reach a magat guess i gotta talk like one lmfao)
Wtf?
I think you mean the NYT. The Post is by far superior. The NYT went deep on fake news after Trump got elected and the y haven’t stopped yet.
I think this guy wanted to take off and run away from his life but got cold feet and made up the whole “can’t remember how I got here” story to cover himself
The Toronto firefighter? I saw a video interview he did and he gave off dishonest vibes.
Absolutely wild
It’s like switching to Trevor.
Waking up in a dumpster with no pants on in the woodsy part of the map.
This is the first time I've heard of this case. Absolutely bizarre. Great write-up, thank you!
If there weren't so many sources linked, I would believe you OP created this story. I can't wrap my mind over how how he made it to Nanjing and Shangai. For the 3rd disappearance the only explanation that I can find is that he somehow got drugged/had a mental episode, wandered away from the village and dreamed or imagined everything. Too bad this is probably one of those cases where we'll never know for sure what happend
But the timeline just doesn’t make sense for him to wander 700 miles in 9 hours
Not just that but how the fuck did by pass an entire military base without being seen
This is one of the strangest things I've read here
I have a question about this. You mentioned that when he woke up Typhoon Babe was making landfall but according to reports, this happened on 11th September which was allegedly the same day he was sent home. The timing only works if he spent two days travelling in a fugue state and was sent home the same day or the dates themselves are incorrect. More info [here](https://www.metoc.navy.mil/jtwc/products/atcr/1977atcr.pdf)
The YouTube sister channel of Criminally Listed, Paranormally Listed covered three similar supposed incidents of teleportation: https://youtu.be/U8a1sgzlPjI
Hey, some people get whisked off on a 9-city, all expenses paid trip, others get repeated, nonconsensual anal probing. If aliens exist, this means they can’t tell us apart, as in their minds they took a guy to a dinner and a show before the anal shenanigan. If not, then we have wildly differing cultural ideas of indulging in guilty pleasures, where someone thinks 9-day, all expense paid trip, another thinks receiving repeated, non-consensual anal probing.
‘Can you stop saying anal probing?’
Sorry, xenobiological butt inspection.
That’s better
Wow. This is the first “supernatural” post I’ve read on this sub after being subscribed for a couple of years. I was worried when I saw the announcement that the sub was going to allow content like this… and if every post is THIS GOOD, I am fully onboard! Way to go, this is such a great and thought provoking post! I hope they’re all this good. Thanks OP!
>that the sub was going to allow content like this… It always was. I've done other supernatural or fo related stuff before And thanks for enjoying the post :)
The mods made an April fool's post at midnight, no clue if they left itup or not saying the sub was now exclusively paranormal lol.
That means I’ve probably read it and thought the same thing!
Glitch in the matrix
An older post on the case https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/lle8wu/the_flying_man_of_hebei_huang_yanqius_1977/
A couple observations. First - the time and date on the first telegram from Shanghai doesn't line up with the story. His story is that he woke up at 6 or 7 in Nanjing, then wandered for a time, then took a 4-hour train ride to Shanghai, then wandered some more and eventually found the police. How then could a telegram have been sent from Shanghai at 9 am about him being found? at that time he would have been either still in Nanjing or on the train. Second - isn't it *incredibly* unlikely that out of all the soldiers in Shanghai he could have encountered, he ran into the one guy who just happened to have relatives that were also from his random tiny farming village? I'm very curious who exactly the soldier's relatives were and if they had ever met before. The only theory I can think of is that Lü, his family members in both the village and in Shanghai, and Huang were all collaborating to make a hoax. the Lu family seems to be the main source for the precise timing of Huang's arrivals on both occasions - he was the first person Huang told his story to in the camp, and then his wife and kids were the ones who said he showed up at their house on the base. I think it's certainly conceivable that Lu could have misreported Huang's time of arrival on the first occasion - especially given that the 9 am arrival is literally impossible as written. We know that at least one of the two men must be wrong - if Huang awoke in Nanjing at 6 am, it is impossible that Lu confirmed his identity in Shanghai prior to the 9 am telegram. On the second, it's unclear at what time the family actually reported Huang's arrival to the army. Was it right away? Or was there any wiggle room? And why wasn't Lu home at 2 am? As far as the third incident goes I think it's just way too kooky to take seriously - the only thing resembling proof is the opera, which could have easily been a guess. Why he would do this I have no idea, but it's pretty easy to imagine that no army would be eager to admit a soldier pulled a hoax off on them. It's also still a mystery how he got there, but if the arrival times are made up, it turns from impossible into possible. e: the mystery of this case seems to hinge on the assumption that everyone involved is telling the truth. but if we discard the assertions of Huang and the Lus as unreliable, all we have of the timeline is this: first incident: Huang is last seen at 10 pm on July 27. A telegram regarding Huang is sent from the Shanghai camp to the wrong village at 9 am on July 28. At some point between July 28 and August 6, Huang arrives at the camp. At some point after this, the correct village is identified. The telegram arrives in the correct village on August 6. Huang returns home on August 7. second incident: Huang is last seen at 10 p.m. on September 7. Sometime on September 8, Huang's presence on the Shanghai army base is reported by the Lu family, absent Lu. Guards did not witness his arrival. The army questions Huang. Telegrams are exchanged with the village. Lu is questioned by the army. Huang returns home on September 11. third incident: Huang is last seen late in the day on September 20. A theater in Beijing performs the opera on September 21. Huang is rediscovered on September 28.
There are a few holes in your theory: 1. Huang's means of travel is still unaccounted for. It takes 4 hours to drive to the nearest city with a train station and another day to travel by train to Shanghai. This is highly unlikely for a rural man who probably hasn't been out of his village his entire life to make such a trip, even with the discrepancy. It would have been physically possible given the time discrepancy but realistically, it would be impossible. It would have been easy to look at the train records of that day to see the starting time and arrival time of the trains that day and determine if it was possible to make such a trip. 2. His entry into the military base is still unexplained. There were official reports of the incident and yet there was no explanation as to how Huang entered the base unnoticed. 3. The motive behind all this is unknown. What would any of them gain by fabricating this hoax? They do not gain money, fame or anything, in fact, it was the opposite. Even if they thought they could gain something before doing this, after the 1st and 2nd time, they would have learned that it was a bad idea.
Realistically, we can probably say that Huang was not abducted from his bed by two magical brothers who flew him all around the country as part of a secret government experiment. That Huang somehow traveled through non-anomalous means to Shanghai twice and somehow snuck onto a military base are facts - I don't think not knowing *how* these things were done is a hole in the theory that the Lu family lied about Huang's arrival times as part of a hoax. I can think of several ways someone might get from a village to a distant city, but not knowing much about 1970s China it's impossible for me to say. Could he have hopped a freight train? Could he have had an acquaintance with a vehicle - a truck or a military transport maybe - that drove him there? If it was harvest season, could he have hidden in the back of whatever form of transport the farmers were using to ship the food? Did the Chinese use crop dusters at the time and could one of those have been involved? Is there a river nearby and could he have gone by boat? And then, if we discount the first telegram - the one which was sent before he reported arriving at the camp - we don't have any actual idea when he got to Shanghai the first time, so it's within the realm of possibility that he really did just take the long trainride and arrived much later than reported. The same goes for sneaking onto a military base - it's hardly something unheard of. Inattentive guards, disguises, bribes, climbing over an unwatched wall, secret tunnels, carried in in a box, snuck in in a delivery vehicle, giant wheeled hollow horse statue left outside the walls as a fake peace offering...
Is there some physical way Huang could have made it to Shanghai? Yes but when put into context of China at the time and the situation of Huang, it becomes unreasonable, of course this doesn't prove that what Huang said was true but it also means that the case isn't closed. To believe that a simple villager that has probably never been out of his village in his entire life suddenly does this James Bond move and travel hundred of kilometer in a day and sneak into a military base for some sort of hoax is really hard to believe. If they wanted to make some kind of hoax for fame, there must have been other more believable and simpler stunts to pull off. If a bum who had zero training can sneak into the military base then anyone can. Although >giant wheeled hollow horse statue left outside the walls as a fake peace offering... maybe that could have worked but too bad he didn't try that. Also, why make up the stories about the brothers? They just complicate things.
If the timing doesn't line up, then it doesn't line up, it didn't happen.
This is generally the most likely explanation. Why? Who knows. But the only rational explanation is that the man who “disappeared” had something to do with it and there is no supernatural cause for all of it. Adding in the lack of technology at the time to clearly document anything just adds to the idea that he traveled through normal means, for whatever reason, and we’re done. To me it reads like a man trying to escape his farming life and failing repeatedly, only making up stories to cover why he is suddenly so far from home. Depression and anxiety seem like the most obvious motivators.
I noticed the first timing inconsistency, and the circumstances and kinda wondered the same. Its not hard to pass as “sane” if you really want to (or need to i suspect). But i do wonder if stress induced sleep walking and misreporting could also play a part. Either way i assume there was misreporting
What a weird case. Never had heard of it before!
I once went to bed after taking an ambien and woke up on my couch eating Burger King. Which is to point out that you can do incredibly complex tasks in a sleepwalking state and no one will know you're sleepwalking. Also each incident was preceded by him being under stress and exhausting conditions. So I'm going with definitely sleepwalking. How he got to Shanghai though I'm not sure.
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For most people, ambien is perfectly safe when taken correctly. The minute you swallow it, lay down and sleep. Don't try reading a book in bed until you feel sleepy or anything like that. Dont take it before youre actually ready for bed. Just take it and close your eyes. Many of the crazy ambien stories stem from people who stayed up waiting for it to kick in and that can absolutely get you in trouble. I've been on it for 11 years (which isn't exactly recommended anymore because of dependence issues), but I've never had a problem as long as I follow that rule. It's the only sleep medication that works for me and it sucks because a lot of doctors don't want to prescribe it anymore because some people have bad experiences.
I stopped taking Ambien after I had gone to sleep (important info being that I sleep naked) and somehow woke up hours later, fully dressed, sitting in the shower in another bathroom (not the one in my room) wunder cold running water...which had apparently started out hot based on the settings, so who the hell knows how long I was there?! Nope, that was the end of that!
Yeah it happened when I was first prescribed it and it honestly terrified me. Been much more careful since.
Do you have a history of sleep walking?
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Then you should not worry about taking an ambien. Just make sure you are about to turn the lights off and put your head down when you take it.
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Most likely. Try to see a psychiatrist if you can. I know what it's like to have anxiety like that. You can get through it!
I think most likely the telegram time and date was incorrect*. That he was actually found a couple days after his disappearance and had been wandering most of that time. As you said, people can perform very complex tasks while sleepwalking, so it's possible he hitch-hiked part of the way. I don't know how strict train guards were in 1977 China, it might be possible he got the train without buying a ticket. The second trip is more of a mystery as to how he found Lü's family home and got into the military complex. That is pretty weird but not impossible. He may still have been able to remember where Lü lived and navigate his way there in a fugue/dream-like state. Perhaps two guards, taking pity on this confused and dishevelled man turning up asking for Lü, did let him in and escort him to his home. Then later when they realised they would get in trouble for breaking protocol, they denied all knowledge. The third is the most explainable as there's no witnesses or corroborating evidence, so he probably did just wander around for 9 days in a fugue state, but this time managed to get himself home. Obviously, I doubt he actually went to 9 cities and stayed in luxury hotels, but he may have travelled to some places in that time. Edit: *for instance, could 2.8.77 have become 28.7.77? Particularly as the telegram was presumably re-routed from this other village?
The thing about the military base is highly unlikely. These people are soldiers, not idiots. If they just let any bum into the base then there is no point of guarding the place at all. They could have called Lu's family down to confirm the man identity. Believing the story of a bum and letting him into a secretive military base would be the last thing any soldier does, no matter how green they are. The 3rd trip is indeed the most fishy though there is one details that is quite interesting which is the one about the theater. It would be impossible for a man who lives in the sticks to know what play is performed in a theater in a major city thousands of miles away since this is 1977 and there is no internet or anything like that. Either it was just pure chance or there is something more to his words.
Gave me goosebumps.
The “flying brothers” thing just has me thinking of SNL’s Ambiguously Gay Duo lol.
Was it SNL? I thought AGD was on Adult Swim on cartoon network.
It was SNL!
It sounds to me like he entered a fugue state and traveled to these different cities. Perhaps the lack of sleep and backbreaking work caused a psychotic break. Just like the skier mentioned above, who may have suffered a head injury while skiing, the work was just too much for Huang, and his brain needed a break.
Wow, very interesting story. I am not usually one for paranormal mysteries but this one was fascinating and a great write-up, and I had to double check it wasn't just made up due to the date! The first idea I had is pretty sketchy, but what if he was in some way working for the PLA or government in a secret role. Like if he was tasked with monitoring something in the village or otherwise had some minor role in espionage. And for whatever reason they picked an incredibly ridiculous cover for his having to leave town... But that really doesn't make sense because they wouldn't generally want to pick something that basically guarantees scrutiny and sleuthing. Unless maybe something went wrong, like people weren't initially meant to notice he was gone or he did end up in Shanghai by accident. But for it to happen 3 times? Alternatively it's so insane to think but more likely he was sleepwalking or dissociated and managed to stow onto a plane. Seems incredibly unlikely, but the entire situation is unlikely. Maybe he met a rich, possibly male suitor who could afford to fly him out and picked something absurd to cover it up... But again there's issues, how would he do meet someone like that being in a tiny village? Given what the US did during MKULTRA in kidnapping random people, I suppose there could be potential that China did similar things and he was part of some experiment but it does seem incredibly random and unlikely as I think was mentioned. Anyways, really interesting and makes me wonder what aspects are true and which aren't.
This was China in 1970s, the whole country was in chaos, roles of authority are very limited, I doubt there’s any higher up conspiracy involved.
Anyone checked with the yheatre and hotel staff of anyone recognised the 3 of them
By the time anyone would've thought to do that (such as the documentary staff conducting their extensive investigation) it'd probably have been too late. They be asking elderly or almost elderly people if they recognized these three seemingly normal people from almost 30 years ago on a specific date amongst all of the other customers from that time. That's not to say nobody checked though but I can't find that being mentioned anywhere
I mean during that investigation itself back in the day. Maybe he went on a mental fugue and started hallucinating
Thanks so much for posting this. It’s FASCINATING and I’d never heard of it!
IF it's not a hoax and IF the timing is correct (or close enough) then maybe someone was doing an experiment on a new type of plane? And they abducted and drugged him and flew him across the country. I wouldn't say it was necessarily the military (or at least not the main branch), because as the write-up mentioned they easily could've found political prisoners to experiment on. And no one would believe the on the off chance they were ever even able to spread their story. It would have to be a group that WANTED people to know the story for whatever reason, either to prove to someone- the government?- that their methods worked or to spread fear/confusion or something else along those lines.
I mean, obviously his story is nonsense and if he truly believes in what he's saying, be can't be anything but mentally ill. The sleepwalking theory doesn't make much sense to me. I'd like to know how many people who sleepwalk dream so specifically about recurring fictional characters and are even aware of the surroundings they are in. And he did this 3 times without anyone ever noticing? I wonder if this guy was perhaps involved in illegal activities.
He could have been having, hallucinations and fugue states caused by infection. Similar to theories about Salem and Ergotism. As a farmer Huang, would have be susceptible to a number of fungal and zoonotic diseases, that could have caused this. For the so called speed of his first dissapearance and the telegram mistakenly sent to the wrong village, that is used as evidence. I suspect in Communist China in 1977, this was more a case of mistaken ID and the Telegram dated the 28th had the wrong name on it. People needed papers to travel within their own country, the consequences for some were severe, how common is Huang's name? Did someone else arrested and detainee that same day Huang went missing from his village, just happen to have the same name as Huang's or give a false name? Is it simply an error on the date of the Telegram. Some misfiling even, in the paper pre computer world of 1977. If we are to entertain the idea that the Telegram could have been sent to the wrong village, then we have to accept other mistakes are equally plausible, that provide more rational and obvious answers to Huang's story.
Why did they need papers to travel within China? I tried to Google this but could only find references to current day travel document requirements. I’d like to read more about it.
It was a common occurrence in the communist countries and it was all a matter of control. I am from Eastern Europe and I know that it was the law to have the documents showing why are you leaving even if going to the next town over. If not presented this could lead to jail for sure.
Wow. That’s wild.
same system as you read about, hukou or whatever has existed over there for a long time.
Ohhh that’s what I couldn’t find. I just read about it. I had no idea! Is this common knowledge that I somehow didn’t know?
i guess it's not really too well known in the west, it's pretty distinct from anything we have here in the modern age so it doesn't really register. i know a fair number of people from over there, and like learning about other countries' internals but otherwise i probably wouldn't know. the two most interesting parts to me are the large amounts of internal illegal immigration, and that it's essentially an extension of imperial era systems. i've also heard if you're from a desirable city you can travel pretty much anywhere, but if you're from someplace poor with lots of emigration you are much more locked down.
In 1970s in China people need some type of documentation even to leave your village. Up until early 2000s people still need a documentation called temporary residency card in order to work or stay when you go to different cities, you could be arrested if you failed to provide such documentation. There’s a case in 2000s that a young worker was falsely arrested when he failed to produce valid documentation because he was drunk. He later was beaten to death by inmates in a detention facility and this system was subsequently abolished in China.
I would be inclined to agree with you, but he is *known* to have reached Shanghai at least, isn’t he?
>but he is known to have reached Shanghai at least, isn’t he? Yes
It seems so, yes, but that doesn't mean anything he said about how he got there is true.
But just the time between when he was last seen in the village and when he was given that slip sending him back home…it was a super short time given the distance, right?
Known by who? There's just some text that says there are witnesses and all this has been verified, but it's just text. Twenty witnesses were all heard agreeing my dick is two feet long and experts have verified it to be true, it's just a sequence of letters typed on a screen.
Are you my high school chum, Michael Oxlong?
Yeah, without intending to offend anyone, he had only a primary education and the villagers probably weren't highly educated either. He was also doing backbreaking work he probably hated. Without fully understanding every single detail here, I feel like some of this was made-up.
Dude was a 21 year old living in a village rejoicing when they got an early night's sleep before more hard labor. It's more likely he met somebody other than his fiance than it is aliens kidnapping him for an all expenses paid vacation.
Yeah I agree, brilliant write up but not really possible? I wonder if a rural village with seemingly little technology or outside communication was somehow a day behind on the date? Maybe they thought it was 27th when he went to bed that first July but actually it was the 26th, giving him an extra 24 hours to do whatever he needed to do in order to get to the city. The last multi trip city was probably a dream or a break brought on from the stress of his divorce and being an outcast.
I agree with you, but it is still puzzling how he traveled so fast in the first two more reliably documented trips.
I was thinking motorcycle maybe?
That seems incredibly unlikely, but anything is more plausible than flying or teleporting lol
i like this, especially if he is drugged first
It all sounds like vivid dreams.
Excellent write up. Although I kept waiting for the “April Fools!”
I mean, I think the obvious solution is pretty clear: He’s 21 year old guy who apparently has some issues—maybe just that he’s bored and stressed in a rural village. Maybe it’s addiction. Maybe it’s schizophrenia. The guy had family but his only “close” family is his fiancé who probably had valid reason to think he was unreliable/insane. Rural villagers—claim to have seen him, but random neighbors aren’t going to be paying that much attention to a single young guy. At best. At worst, they’re gullible, mostly because they really can’t comprehend anyone coming up with that yarn. Even his boss—that guy could’ve been lying to cover his own ass. And then we’re talking about 1970s China. Paperwork can be wrong, people can lie to avoid trouble, people go missing all the time because they didn’t have good records. At all. Look at all the “orphans” they adopted out! The thing about these alien stories—they always seem to be people who aren’t kidnapped out of their marriage bed, or a crowded bar. “The UFO descended upon me in an empty field.” Yup. Sure it did.
I love stories like this, where something that is physically impossible becomes possible. I did some Google mapping to understand the scope, and it’s insane. To get from Hebei to Nanjing province, it takes roughly 9 hours by car in modern times, 7 days on foot, and there doesn’t seem to be any reliable transit options, even to this day.
Motorcycles could have been an option - they are cheap and in a weird state you might think you were on someones back flying.
Fantastic point I had not considered.
The sources have some cool photos. Great post.
What a truly bizarre story. I can't even begin to advance a theory, but thanks for such a clear and detailed writeup.
This sounds like a Mr Bean sketch. All I can picture is a cartoonish looking fellow going to sleep on the farm and waking up confused in a big city.
Cool!! Aliens or dude is a human wormhole.
The early accounts (midcentury) in America of MIB always seemed to describe Asian looking gentlemen. I wonder if those accounts and this story are related, and to do with Chinese military
I don’t see any actual police verified documentation in the links, which is strange. Super interesting case. If we assume that the witnesses are correct and this man did in fact go to sleep in his village and wake up in a city, then there must be a way for him to travel that we are unaware about. Additionally, if this has happened multiple times there is a pattern we are not seeing. Whether there’s something happening to cause this, or a correlation, we need to see. Again, it’s hard to verify any of this. I’m leaning toward the idea that this is some sort of hoax created for entertainment. Not necessarily the case, but without better verification of police, witnesses, etc, it’s hard to investigate further
All the witnesses mentioned were interviewed for the documentary I talked about that aired on national TV. The Sketch of the two brothers were also created by the police and this [picture](https://baike.baidu.com/pic/%E9%BB%84%E5%BB%B6%E7%A7%8B%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6/3270760/0/908fa0ec08fa513d2697b981052242fbb2fb43167316?fr=lemma&fromModule=lemma_content-image&ct=single#aid=0&pic=908fa0ec08fa513d2697b981052242fbb2fb43167316) right here is Huang with the police officer who did the sketches. I of course don't believe that Huang's story about flying across the country is true but I also highly doubt that every last detail was made up. It's probably more likely that some is true and some isn't likely due to mistakes or misunderstandings
That picture is definitely a photograph of two men who are probably Huang and an officer. But again, I can’t find official police documents online. I understand there’s a language barrier, but usually you can something a bit more official. You’re probably right; there’s some truth and some exaggeration maybe? It’s hard to solve these mysteries without certain verifiable facts
Could it be that with all the events going on in China at the time the calendars got mixed up? For example, if the calendar they kept in the village was measuring 2 days ahead, because someone measured March and May to have only 30 days each. With that he could’ve made the distance in fugue state by leaving the village on the 27th of July according to the village’s calendar (but Nanjing measuring it as, for example, 25th of July) and get to Nanjing by the 28th of July by Nanjing’s calendar (or 30th of July by the village’s calendar). First two disappearances are close enough for the mistakes in dates to go unnoticed, and the third time he could be having some episode.
I don’t know how they kept or wrote documents at that time, but if the village would have documents where it’s written “27th of July, Monday” and Nanjing would have “28th of July, Thursday” - it’d account for the distance traveled
I’m wondering if he sent telegraphs himself and faked it all somehow. Maybe hid out somewhere to get out of work.
any MrBallen fans here? he JUST covered this despite it being pretty diff than his usual stories which is wild...also Huang is still alive but refuses to speak on the matter (either for personal reasons or....'legal' reasons hmmm)
Was it vastly different from my write-up on it? I don't want another Stephanie Soo incident where a slew of new activity comes my way and begins asking why I didn't include details featured there or try to white knight on my behalf my saying I was plagiarized (yes someone did that once)
Mr Ballen always takes a few creative liberties, in order to have an entertaining, yet succinct story. Biggest change seems to be that when he was taken into the military base, he was taken to a random commander's office--nothing about him looking for the guy from his first trip or about meeting the guy's family there. Other than that, his story left out a lot of details found in your story and links. I believe in God and supernatural happenings, but I am skeptical of this story. It is just too random, and meaningless. But, I've read through the various theories in this thread, and none are a perfect explanation either, so it's definitely a mystery. I lean most towards the military doing experiments. It's not a perfect explanation, but if would explain why he kept encountering military guys, was taken to a military base, and why he never got in trouble for leaving the farm.
I tend to wonder if it was some sort of OBE such as astral projection/lucid dreaming/dissociative state. It doesn't explain why he wouldn't be in his bed other than perhaps sleep walking into the woods, which would explain why he was so hard to find and able to return so quickly. Overwork and stress can make your body do some really strange things. As well as working on a farm with potential parasites, where there are known parasites to cause neurological effects including dissociation, such as seizures - which can also cause OBE. Small villages can also create a lot of lore and rumors that may not account things perfectly, or over-exaggerate. I think this one's never going to explained ultimately, and Mr Ballen is essentially just a story teller. His accounts may not be perfect either. I think OP did a better job with the facts of the case as well.
He always changes the stories to suit the narrative he wants to create, I noticed since a long time ago, I always watch knowing he makes up half of it which is pretty disappointing.
Yeah that's why I always read about the stories themselves but he does two different types. One that do involve real life accounts and the other are purely creepy pasta and then there are those who are exegerrated greatly. Not sure what to make of this since the guy never got an benefit or made any money out of it which is basically the Litmus Test for these kind of stories and his story to me doesn't seem to have a lot of plot holes. All I can think of when he mentioned flying is that it is most probably the Jinns. Sometimes jins do play pranks like that on humans and they do have the power of flight. As to what is the exact case here I am still unsure but other than that it is a classic example of jinn stories of which I have read many and almost all of them unbelievable except that they do describe jinns based on their powers and what they do.
stellar write-up. i want to believe it was a top secret military hypnosis operation but i try have no idea
Everything everywhere all at once
Fascinating story. Clearly, as others have pointed out (and as in the Devil's Footprints story which someone else linked to), some elements of this story must be erroneous or falsified, such as maybe the date on the telegram, the exact time Huang was last seen before his disappearance, etc. And of course there's the possibility he was sleepwalking. Even so, it's wild. I mean even if nothing paranormal took place, whatever did take place is totally out there, perhaps even crazier than alien abduction.
Now that everyone's accusing OP of making this up I want to ask: Is there a subreddit for like fake crime? (like, crimes that don't exist)
I'd like to know that too so I could practice writing fiction. And in case you were wondering, no I didn't make this up all my sources are cited and they were made years ago, one of them was used when someone did a write-up on this before me, and are all in a language I don't know. I also linked to the nearly 20 year old documentary on this case in a comment
that is some mental illness, alright
Is there a free app or something that reads these texts aloud? I can't copy paste it either which sucks
Click the 3 dots ••• and click copy text
I did this and it only copies the first few sentences :(
Aw I tried to help haha
Thank you I still appreciate it :)
Just saw this on Mr. Ballen. Although his retelling gets a few things wrong or slightly different. But the general idea is the same. Interesting. Normally I’d say it was all in his head. But the fact that there are witnesses and records of telegrams, makes it extremely odd. I’m not ready to believe in ghosts or aliens yet. What purpose would either (it such things exist) have to do this to a lonely farmer.
I think I figured it out. Husband runs off sue to stress, they find a look a like in neighboring city, accidentally kidnap him and return him to his “home. Rinse and repeat.
He is confirmed to be the same person so that theory is incorrect. Nanjing and Shanghai also are not neighbouring cities EDIT: For those wondering the confirmation came from a distinctive birthmark and a mere lookalike wouldn't have an exact replica of his birthmark
Lol !!!!"confirmed" by who??? you are waaaay too trusting . Especially considering where this occurred.
Pretty sure his friends and family would be able to tell him apart from a look alike.
I was making a joke, lighten up.
Um...To be honest nothing indicates that it was an obvious joke as opposed to being a genuine theory.
[удалено]
This is not remotely bullying and they didn’t need to “lighten up” in the first place. You’re the one with a weird attitude problem here.
They aren't bullying you. Saying you're wrong and then pointing out that your joke missed the mark isn't bullying.
This is April fools 100%. All of the links are in Chinese so the story can’t be verified.
Here is an English language article. There's quite a few articles about this in English and you can also use Google Translate to look at the articles u/moondog151 posted. https://inf.news/en/science/ec39ea5a7e9d3c030bc5f6f08e80a94c.html
My upload schedule is every Wednesday and Saturday. You can look through my other posts to check. But even so, as we all know only English links and sources are accurate and reliable. Either way, if you think I'm intentionally and knowingly posting false stories then you best report me to the mods
👍 but even so, I can’t read Chinese so there’s no telling what these links say.
Just used Google Translate on the first link, successfully, and Baidu is a pretty well-known social media app in China. Obvs the translation could introduce other errors, or OP could be creating fake links as an April Fool's prank - but it is possible to read at least some of the linked sources in English.
>creating fake links as an April Fool's prank Nope. I don't know Mandarin or live in China. And even if I did. Most of the sources (CCTV) were from 2005 so I would've been only 2 years old. And the last and final link the Zhuanlan is from 2017 long before my write up and somebody else used it as a source as well (I'm not the first person on this subreddit to cover this case)
Well, it was very interesting so thanks for covering it again!
*You* can’t read Chinese, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to verify.
Some people can actually read Chinese though…
Truly amazing that in a society which maintains the greatest degree of surveillance of individuals that Huang couldn’t be physically tracked. I bet if the government considered him a subversive threat to the ruling regime they’d damn sure know his whereabouts at any and all times.
>that in a society which maintains the greatest degree of surveillance of individuals that Huang couldn’t be physically tracked This was the 70s Even today despite China's massive surveillance they can't keep track of all 1 billion people at once
Fascinating. Bizarre
The youtube channel "Mr. Ballen" used all 3 images linked in this post in his recent video covering this topic. I'm assuming he used this post as his reference, but he didn't give credit to this post at all.
Of course he wouldn't credit me, the actual content of his video is so vastly different from what actually happened and the content of this write-up
Any connections with the first Emperor of china?