Zhangjiajie is a famous tourist destination in China, with beautiful scenery and dreamlike scenery, attracting millions of tourists at home and abroad every year.
In the depths of Zhangjiajie Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve, there is a scenic spot called "Shentang Bay", which for thousands of years has been a "forbidden place" that has been talked about by the local population, full of all kinds of strange legends.
Zhangjiajie
Seeing this, it is estimated that some readers will laugh, and there are more places in the world where there are mysterious rumors, which is nothing unusual.
But the actual situation is that this place called Shentang Bay is indeed very unusual, because a large number of rumors about it are likely not to be empty, and in 2012, the relevant departments in Hunan Province even organized a large-scale scientific expedition, accompanied by CCTV reporters, in the hope of solving various mysteries that have circulated in this place for thousands of years.
First, what is so strange about Shindo Bay?
The first is its topography, which is extremely peculiar.
Although The name of Shentang Bay has the word "bay", it is not a place like a river bay, a lake, but a bottomless cliff.
The flat shape here is a "concave" shape, three sides are cliffs, the one that is recessed into it is a cliff abyss, straight to the bottom of the cliff, people can not see its bottom, can only see the clouds on the mountainside, wild trees.
It should be noted that I am not an adjective when I say that it is "bottomless" here, but that it is the case, and that technology is extremely advanced today, but to this day no one knows how deep this place really is.
The cliff-top observation deck of Shindo Bay
Unknown mysterious places always make people curious, and the abyss of Shentang Bay is no exception. Because it is so deep and mysterious, there have been many legends at the bottom of this cliff since ancient times.
This article is a popular science article, those too gods and gods to nag the legend will not be repeated, only to say two key points that have attracted the attention of scientists - the legend of the "Yin Soldier Exercise" and the rumor of the giant python at the bottom of the cliff.
As soon as it is windy and rainy in this place of Shentang Bay, if anyone stands on the cliff, they will hear a sound similar to the practice of thousands of troops and horses or the roar of giant beasts at the bottom of the cliff, which is different from those pretending to be mysterious places, this sound is very clear, sometimes even very large.
The locals listened to it for a long time, and their hearts were afraid and did not know the reason, so they gave this strange sound the word "Yin Soldier Exercise".
At the end of the 1980s, Zhangjiajie scenic spot began to develop and receive tourists, Shentang Bay, a scenic spot created by nature's miraculous craftsmanship, also had many people go, and more tourists went, and naturally many people heard this strange sound in Shentang Bay.
Even tourists have heard it, coupled with the local mysterious legend, the rumor that "there is a yin soldier training at the bottom of the cliff" has been vividly spread.
Some people have also tried to solve this mystery, explaining that this is because there is a natural magnetic field at the bottom of the cliff, which has "recorded" the sounds of ancient armies fighting, and these sounds will be released and reproduced when encountering special natural conditions such as wind and rain, lightning and thunder.
It sounds very scientific and reasonable, but unfortunately it is only a speculation, and it is impossible to confirm whether this is the case.
In fact, it is not difficult to solve this mystery, as long as you send people to the bottom of the cliff to see, you can naturally find the answer.
But the problem is that no one has dared to go down for a long time, because in addition to this legend of "Yin Soldier Training", there is another terrible rumor - there is an unusually large python growing under the cliff.
The local rumors of this incident are well known because someone has witnessed it with their own eyes.
In a pragmatic and rigorous manner, I went through a lot of information to find the source of the python rumors. I originally thought that this matter was mostly an element of false rumors, and there was little hope of finding the exact source, but who knew this investigation, but it was an extremely unexpected discovery!
Second, the little-known 1981 Zhangjiajie scientific expedition
In 1981, an expeditionary named Ke Yun was ordered by the Cili County Party Committee of Hubei Province at that time to lead a five-person expedition team to go deep into the original forest of Zhangjiajie, which had not yet been developed at that time, to conduct a scientific investigation.
After many days of trekking through mountains and waters, the large-scale inspection task has been basically completed, and only the core area of Shentang Bay has not yet gone.
Due to the extreme danger of Shentang Bay among the local population, for safety reasons, the inspection team deliberately applied for several semi-automatic rifles and corresponding ammunition at the Armed Department of the Cili County Party Committee, with one shot in each hand and sufficient supplies, and embarked on the road of exploring Shentang Bay.
The original style of Zhangjiajie photographed in the 1970s and 1980s
The time when the expedition team entered Shentang Bay was in the autumn, when there was no artificial road to enter the bay, only a beast road in and out of the beast, and the expedition team entered the bay along this beast road and explored all the way.
Along the way, everyone was cautious, paying attention to the surroundings and the bottom of their feet at any time, afraid of suddenly jumping out of a beast or stepping on some poisonous snake and insect, which was a real fatal thing.
Just as the crowd was halfway through and their nerves were highly nervous, suddenly a cold wind blew in front of them, and a large number of frightened birds flew up around them. The expedition members were taken aback and pressed the bullets into the chamber in case something unexpected might happen next.
Just before everyone could return to Their Senses, a humanoid object suddenly jumped out of a cave in front of them...
The team members immediately broke out in a cold sweat, this is the deepest part of the primeval forest, rarely visited in ancient times, where did this "person" come from?
"Savage!" The team members quickly reacted, shouted, and pointed their rifles at the humanoid object suspected of being a wild man.
Just when everyone was highly nervous, who knew that the "wild man" suddenly spoke, saying, "What wild man, oh, I am Deng Jiubo who collects medicine." ”
The deep mountain medicine picker of the last century
The crowd knew that it was a false alarm, and they all put down their guns and talked with the old man.
After the conversation, it was learned that this old man named Deng Jiubo was a local hereditary medicine picker, who had gone deep into Shentang Bay nineteen times and was extremely familiar with the situation in the bay.
Third, Deng Jiubo's life and death experience
Deng Jiubo was very talkative, and he told the expedition members that he had never seen a wild man, but he had seen a python many times, the most thrilling of which was that he went to the cliff wall of Shentang Bay last summer to collect medicine and encountered a huge snake.
The following is an excerpt from the original text of Deng Jiubo's oral content compiled by Ke Yun:
...... The harvest went smoothly on this day, and a large basket was picked in half a day. After the harvest, return to the original road, on the way to see a bucket-sized tree barrel across the road.
He was a little tired, sitting on it to rest and smoke, and when the pipe that had burned out of the cigarette knocked on the tree, he saw the tree barrel rolling.
He fixed his eyes on it, and it wasn't a tree tube at all, but a python with two heads that didn't see a shadow!
He was so frightened that he slid down the ground with a rolling belt, and he didn't know where to throw the medicine, only to retrieve one life. Out of the bay, all the clothes bloomed, and there was blood in several places.
Because Deng Jiubo's description was quite exaggerated, Ke Yun did not quite believe it, and then he immediately questioned the authenticity of the matter.
Is this true? Isn't that the story you made up? I asked.
His eyebrows were raised, and his beard was straight up: "You look at people in the cracks of the door of your descendants, treat me Deng Jiubo as a person, and deceive you Lao Tzu that you should be damned." ”
Looking at his anxious look, everyone laughed and talked for a while, and we said goodbye to him.
This passage is the source of the rumor of the giant python under the cliff of Shentang Bay, this article was published in the State Forestry Administration's professional journal "Forest and Humanity" No. 3, 2001, the article title is "Wulingyuan Python has a strange interest", the author is Ke Yun himself.
I checked it on the Internet, Deng Jiubo's story has been quoted by some publications and self-media, and there is a story made up according to this matter in the Shentangwan Encyclopedia, and I don't know where it jumped out.
According to Deng Jiubo, the python he encountered had the "thickness of a bucket" and the length was not specifically described.
From the existing data, the snake has only the Amazon River's forest hopper, the python is basically not so thick, if Deng Jiubo's statement is true, then he encountered a very large python, which is of great scientific research value.
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that what Deng Jiubo said was a misunderstanding, note that he described him as seeing a "tree tube", if the python is resting on the tree tube, it is not impossible for him to see the two as one in a hurry, in fact, I personally feel that this situation is more likely.
The above is the origin of the rumors of the giant python under the cliff of the Shentang Bay and some analysis, as for the real situation, it is natural to send people down to find out and see it with your own eyes.
In April 2012, the scientific expedition team led by Professor Zhai Fudong, a geological expert from Hunan Province, officially entered Shentang Bay, and CCTV sent reporters to follow and shoot, in order to completely unveil the mystery of the mysterious phenomenon of Shentang Bay through this comprehensive scientific expedition!
In 2012, the Zhangjiajie scientific expedition team, the front row was Professor Zhai Fudong
Fourth, the first inspection of the scientific expedition team
The primary goal of the expedition team's action is to uncover the mystery of the strange sound of the "Yin Soldier Training" in Shentang Bay, as for the python that you are more interested in, it belongs to the category of biological investigation, and the specific results depend on whether the scientific expedition team will encounter it.
The scientific expedition team believes that in order to solve the strange sound phenomenon of Shentang Bay, it is necessary to first find the sound source of the strange sound, and to find the sound source, it must be to go deep into the bottom of the cliff of Shentang Bay, which has not been entered for thousands of years. At the bottom of the cliff, what exactly made such a huge roar was naturally visible at a glance.
Prehistoric behemoths? Super Monty Python? Or something else unknown?
Everything depends on this trip to the bottom of the cliff.
After the expedition team arrived at Shentang Bay, it happened that it encountered heavy fog for several days, and the plan to enter the bottom of the cliff had to be postponed repeatedly.
Zhangjiajie often has heavy fog
However, when the expedition team was forced to suspend the exploration plan, a local villager told the expedition team that there was a road leading to the area where the cliff bottom of Shentang Bay was located, and volunteered to lead the way for the expedition team.
The expedition team was overjoyed when they heard the news and immediately decided to leave the next day.
Early the next morning, the villagers' guide led a team of scientists from a canyon called the "Ten Mile Gallery" to the bottom of the legendary cliff.
The "road" that supposedly leads to the bottom of the cliff was not developed, and the "road" was rocky and overgrown, and the expedition team climbed with the guide all the way, and finally reached a small stream after 2 hours.
According to the guide, this creek flows out from near the cliff bottom of Shentang Bay, and as long as you follow the water, you can enter the range of the section where the cliff bottom is located.
The members of the expedition team were greatly encouraged, but they slowed down their pace and looked for stone frogs growing in the mountains in the creek.
According to the scientific expedition team, the huge mysterious sound at the bottom of the cliff is likely to be made by animals, and there is a local legend that the stone frog at the bottom of the cliff of Shentang Bay is as big as a camel, like a prehistoric giant beast.
According to folklore experts, locals say that the stone frog under the cliff is comparable in size to a camel
Although the scientific expedition team did not believe this statement, if the stone frogs were not one or two, but in groups, then the loud cries they made might indeed be the source of the mysterious sound at the bottom of the cliff.
Now the emergence of this creek has given the expedition team hope for the establishment of the "stone frog hypothesis". Not long after, sure enough, a team member found a little stone frog from the stream, which seemed to further confirm the view that "mysterious sound = stone frog group cry" from the side.
But is this really the case?
Speculation is speculation after all, the real answer, or only really to the bottom of the cliff can be known.
Then the expedition continued to march forward, and as the journey got deeper and deeper, they began to approach the bottom of the cliff little by little, but at this moment, an accident occurred.
A cliff stretched like a flying peak on the way forward for the expedition team!
Blocking the cliff where the expedition team went to the road, CCTV took a screenshot
As shown in the picture, this cliff is steep, the height difference is not small, and the danger of climbing is extremely high.
In the face of this sudden appearance of the roadblock, the scientific expedition team was also quite helpless, and had to look around for a way to bypass. Unfortunately, the rest of the place is also a cliff. In other words, if they want to go deeper, they have to climb over this cliff.
The expedition team discussed it and finally had to return for safety reasons.
The first attempt to explore the bottom of the cliff was hindered by the impassability of the road, but this also made the expedition team fully realize that if they wanted to truly enter the bottom of the cliff, there was only one way to go down from the cliff of Shentang Bay, and there was no other way.
The curtain of the hanging rope hanging man to explore the truth of The Divine Temple Bay has begun!
Fifth, the cliff is terrifying
In the legend of the locals, those who have gone to the bottom of the cliff for thousands of years have almost no survivors. Regardless of whether this statement is true or not, after all, whether anyone in history has really gone down has been said twice, but there is indeed a great danger of hanging from the cliff and going to the bottom of the cliff.
In 1994, the United States, Japan, Germany and other countries organized a scientific expedition to Shentang Bay, when the scientific expedition team only hung half down and had to return, and one of the scientific expedition team members mysteriously disappeared, which shows that the situation under the cliff of Shentang Bay is extremely complicated, and there are likely to be some unknown dangers.
Of course, the multinational joint expedition in the 1990s was not without results, and they basically found out the situation on the cliff of Shentang Bay.
As shown in the following figure, The Shrine Bay is a place with cliffs on three sides like a patio, and the three-dimensional shape of the upper part of the space is an inverted gourd shape, narrow on the top and wide on the bottom. The narrow place is about 30 meters, and then the space gradually expands, and the widest part is about 60 meters.
If you go down the rope from the observation deck, there will be 2 small platforms for temporary rest. As shown in the figure below, the first small platform is about 150 meters below the observation deck, and the second small platform is 200 meters further down on the first platform.
If you go further down from the second platform, what's underneath it? How deep? No one knows anymore.
Schematic diagram of the overhanging downward facade, the blue arrow is the route vertically lifted from the cliff top (the author simply painted)
The expedition team wants to challenge such a place, not to mention whether a python will suddenly jump out of the cliff and swallow people in one bite, just the mountain wind blows the rope, the untrained people can not withstand it, the whole exploration operation is dangerous, can be imagined.
And then when the team members were hanging in mid-air, they encountered a mysterious creature.
At the beginning, the descent was quite smooth, and the 8 expedition members arrived at the first platform one after another, and the crowd was resting as planned, ready to meet the next challenge.
However, at this moment, a team member suddenly noticed a strange creature flying in the air, the team members did not see clearly at first, and after the thing stopped in the tree, the team members vaguely saw that the thing resembled a cat.
Flying cats?
No one on Earth has ever heard of such a creature.
Not long after, the team members finally saw what this thing looked like, and then one of the team members immediately shouted angrily: "Flying fox! ”
The flying fox is an animal in Zhangjiajie, which looks very similar to a mouse, is not large, and has a flying film on its body, which can be used to glide in the air. This animal has a peculiar habit of gnawing on mountain vines or ropes hanging from cliff faces.
Seeing the flying fox flying, the support team members on the top of the cliff began to shout loudly, and the flying fox was disturbed by the voices of the team members, so it flew away slowly, and the team members under the cliff breathed a sigh of relief.
The team members then moved on to the second platform.
At about 1 p.m., the team members successively reached the second platform, at this time they had dropped by more than 350 meters, and the height was equal to that of three half-and-a-half 33-storey 100-meter-high buildings, which could be regarded as deep under the cliffs of Shentang Bay. And then, they were going to go deeper than anyone had ever been, in order to completely unravel the mystery of the strange sound of the "Yin Soldier Training" in Shentang Bay!
Sixth, what did the expedition team members see under the cliff? Uncover the mystery of the mysterious source of sound in Shindo Bay
As mentioned above, this shrine bay is covered on three sides by cliffs, its structure is similar to a "patio", and the lighting outlet at the top of the cliff is extremely small, so the further down it goes, the darker it becomes.
In the process of descending down, the scientific expedition team members obviously noticed that the further down the space became narrower, the three sides of the mountain wall gradually began to converge, the sunlight gradually decreased here, the surrounding environment began to become dark, and people seemed to walk in the nine shadows.
Starting from the second platform, the team members dropped another 250 meters, a place that no one has set foot on since ancient times, including those who have been collecting medicine for a living for generations, and dare not fall to such a deep depth.
But at this location, about 600 meters from the top of the cliff, the team members finally made a major discovery.
On the cliff of this location, the team members saw a large number of small waterfalls emerging from the rocks and flowing straight down, playing a symphony of nature together.
Thus, the source of the mysterious strange sound at the bottom of the cliff of Shentang Bay was finally revealed!
According to the analysis of the results of the scientific expedition team obtained by Professor Zhai later, the structure of Shentang Bay is extremely peculiar, there is only a gap on one side of the mountain on three sides, and when the weather becomes windy and rainy, a huge air current rushes in from the gap, colliding back and forth on the narrow cliff wall to form an echo effect. Then, as the rain increased, the number of waterfalls in the lower part of the cliff soared, and the sound of water became louder.
Screenshot of the image of the waterfall under the cliff taken by the expedition team
The sound of the wind and the waterfall plus the echo effect, mixed into a strange sound transmitted to the top of the cliff, this sound sometimes sounds like the roar of a giant beast, sometimes like a thousand troops and horses practicing marching, locals and tourists heard, and over time rumors called the so-called "Yin soldier training".
At this point, the mystery of the strange sound at the bottom of the cliff of Shentang Bay was completely uncovered. Of course, the task of the expedition team members is not over, they still have to continue to explore, and strive to really reach the bottom of the cliff.
Next, the expedition team members descended another 50 meters and came to a deep valley. The visibility here is already extremely low, and the scientific expedition team members looked around and found that it was like a forbidden place for life.
This place is very peculiar, there are no fish and shrimp in the water, there are no stone frogs everywhere in the mountains, and other slightly larger creatures are missing, as if it is a lifeless "dead place".
Screenshot of the canyon image taken by the expedition team
The existence of this "dead land" is still an unknown mystery, why is there such a lifeless zone in this particular place of 650 meters at the bottom of the cliff of Shentang Bay?
Monty pythons or other beasts of prey nests? Or is it because there is little sunlight here that organisms cannot survive? All kinds of speculations vary, but you can speak freely about what you think.
There is a deep pool in this "dead place", and the team members cross the deep pool, and what comes into view is a bottomless sinkhole vertically downwards, or a super cave. Since it was already 4 p.m. at this time, it would be dark in another hour, and this "dead place" was too weird, for the safety of everyone, the scientific expedition team had to decide to return.
At 9 p.m., the members of the scientific expedition team finally returned smoothly, and the entire scientific expedition team was safe, which was a great blessing.
Cliffs of Shindo Bay
The 2012 expedition ended here, and no one has ever gone down to such a deep cliff bottom since then, so the questions that the expedition team finally discovered in the sinkhole that continued to go down, where to go, etc., are still unknown, and perhaps with the further exploration and development of Shentang Bay in the future, these insoluble mysteries can be truly solved.