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Chinese 3-D movie, The House That Never Dies, draws many visitors to 'haunted' mansions in Beijing, leading to sleepless nights among nearby residents. Xu Lin reports.
The House That Never Dies, a 3-D Chinese movie, recently grossed 400 million yuan ($65 million) at the box office. Its success has led to an increase in the number of visitors to the purportedly haunted mansions of Chaonei No 81 in Beijing's Dongcheng district.
Although the movie wasn't shot there, the dilapidated mansions, with creaky wooden staircases, and ceiling and floor cracks, have inspired the imaginations of fans of the film.
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A visitor in one of the "haunted" mansions before they were closed to the public. Song Jiayin / For China Daily |
The movie tells the story of a woman who comes to live in her ancestor's haunted house and encounters a series of strange events. Since the film's premiere in July, people have been keen to see the two legendary three-story French Baroque-style mansions.
The Beijing Patriotic Catholic Association that owns the mansions has locked the gates and hammered planks on the first-floor windows because people were trying to break in. The association also put up a notice on the gate saying that the mansions are in poor shape and have nothing to do with the movie.
"Many people say they're haunted houses, but I think they're talking rubbish. These are just two historical buildings that failed to be protected. They seem to be dangerous and deserve to be preserved," says Zhou Yang, 29, a self-employed woman from Beijing. She used to live close to the mansions. "It's such a waste to have two spare buildings in this area, where the housing prices are incredibly high."
The association plans to renovate the historic structure and is awaiting approval from the district's relics protection department.
Built in the 1910s by an American missionary to be used as a school, the buildings served as the offices of Beijing's civil affairs bureau in the 1950s. They were returned to the association in the 1990s and have been empty ever since. About a decade ago, ghost stories about the mansions started to emerge on the Internet, drawing curious visitors.
"The buildings have been haunted by 'live ghosts' (visitors) rather than 'dead ghosts' for years," a 74-year-old resident says angrily. Trespassers climb over the walls and utter dreary cries and screams to scare others at night despite attempts by gatekeepers to keep people off the property by making utility poles slippery with oil and lining walls with pieces of glass.
"It's difficult for those who live nearby to fall asleep, and the guard dog barks all night because it is frightened. Sometimes I get to sleep only from 4 to 5 am because there are no visitors then," she says.
"People are interested in anything that is mysterious, especially ghost stories. When we get scared, we release adrenaline and endorphins, which give us a high that can be surprisingly addictive," says Daniel Newman from the United Kingdom, founder of newmantour.com. The agency offers English-language tours, including "ghost tours", in six destinations including Shanghai and Beijing.
Newman tells people ghost stories of Chaonei No 81 during the tours but doesn't take them to the buildings. He thinks China has rich ghost stories and that Chinese people tend to take "ghosts" more seriously than Westerners do, although it is a superstition.
Contact the writer at xulin@chinadaily.com.cn
