"Lake monsters" resurfaced

On the afternoon of June 7, (around 7:50 pm, Beijing time), seven tourists from Beijing were sailing on the Kanas Lake, a scenic spot in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China. When they stopped near Sandaowan for a photo, they suddenly spotted two dark objects, very large in size, springing out of the water, breaking a wave one meter high. They leapt forward one following the other, headed swiftly towards the middle of the lake and disappeared from sight in about two minutes. Then peace reigned again.

Each of the "monsters" looked about 10 meters long, said the seven Beijing tourists, who were the only witnesses to this bizarre encounter. They responded quickly by raising up their video camera on hand, and now local authorities are talking with them for a duplication of their tape.

Whether the two objects are legendary "lake monsters" requires further investigation.

"Monsters" thought to be giant fish

Kanas Lake, meaning a "beautiful and mysterious lake" in Mongolian language, is located at the Kanas Nature Reserve in Aletai mountain area of north Xinjiang. As China's largest alpine lake, it is famous for its beautiful scenery and primitive eco-system. In 1985, Xinjiang Daily carried a headline announcing discovery of giant Red Fish in the lake, saying they were 10 to 15 meters long, weighing more than 4 tons and each having a head over one meter wide. Since then, domestic and foreign reports on the mysterious creatures have never ceased and investigation teams came one after another.

The "lake monster" is thought to be giant taimen. In 1987, a well-equipped scientific research team formed by local and domestic experts discovered a sizeable school of Giant Red Fish, each of them three or four meters long. The team thus announced that the mystery was solved--the "lake monsters" were giant taimen, called Giant Red Fish locally. After that the investigation team published a book on its survey, but until now people still know little about this kind of giant fish.

Further investigation scheduled

For those bulls, horses and sheep disappeared along the lake, were they really swallowed up by the "monsters"? An answer may come up in the coming September, when scientists, divers, cameramen and experts on environment and tourism gather here to launch a full-scale exploration. The ten-day activity, for which related plans have been drawn, is another attempt to solve this century-old mystery.