China’s Haunted Subway Station

The Caobao Road Subway Station is on the original Number One Line in Shanghai, China. 

Subways are the most inexpensive and convenient form of transportation in Shanghai so many people use and pass through the Caobao station.

According to several popular local legends this station is haunted. For this reason, it has been nicknamed the “Ghost Station.”

Trains often break down here, when maintenance crews pull them out of the station they then find these trains work fine.

Riders that use this station often report that doors will not open when trains are stopped at Caobao.

One gruesome and scary story is told about a male passenger that was waiting for a subway at Caobao when a train hit and killed him.

Witnesses afterwards stated they saw something odd push this man off the platform. Yet others reported they saw this strange figure drag him to the tracks.

Caobao Subway Road Station

Workers that clean the station after it is closed report hearing the eerie sounds of a woman’s laughter. They head down the tracks to a dark secluded spot where these sounds come from but once they arrive, no one is there.

One young girl that committed suicide at Caobao was spotted for several nights right after her death in the station. She was always seen wearing a red dress and sitting on one specific station bench.

The Shanghai manager of this subway line admits he has never visited this station--all the stories make him nervous. He believes the strange activity reported at Caobao might be related to the fact that the local mortuary is located near this station.

Others point to the fact that eight mysterious deaths have occurred in this station since the 1990s.

Japan: Kosodate Yurei

A while back I shared a traditional California ghost story entitled, Milk Bottles. The reader can find it here.

Kosodate
Yurei

The Japanese have shared this story for centuries. Even though the story of the Kosodate yurei is a very old ghost story several modern versions of it are still shared with children in Japan today.

Japanese ghosts are known as Yurei. These ghosts are both feared and honored. Most Yurei stories were originally shared during the Edo period (1603-1868).

Kosodate yurei means “child-raising” ghost. 

In the American version of this story the ghost of a frontier mother comes in search of “milk bottles” to keep her baby alive that was mistakenly buried with her.

In most modern Japanese versions of this story unlike the American one this mother brings her child with her.

Sweet Sake

Today Tsukiji is a popular fish market in Tokyo. At one time this area was also used for several temples and cemeteries.

Amazake--Sweet Sake

A dealer in this original market became curious when a woman approached his stall every night clutching her baby to her and purchased amazake--this is sweet sake given to children.

One night as he watched this woman give the sake to her baby he decided to follow her.

He watched her as she went into the main hall of one temple and then she simply vanished. Gathering his wits he then hears a baby’s cry and follows the sound to a nearby cemetery.

There he traces the crying to a freshly dug grave. He then unearths this grave. He finds in the coffin the mother’s corpse, in her arms she is still holding the baby tightly.

Similarities and Differences

This Japanese legend and the American one that evolved from it have several similarities but there are also several major differences.

Like mentioned above the Japanese version has the mother bring her baby with her--in the American one she leaves the child behind.

In the Japanese version the Kosodate is in search of sharing the “pleasures” of life with her child--in this version sweet sake--in other Japanese versions little toys, candy etc.

In contrast, the American version has the mother searching for nourishment for her child--in order to keep her baby alive.

Another difference is in the Japanese version the mother appears to want to keep her baby with her *--whereas in the American version she wants someone to find and then rescue her baby.

* This makes this version scarier in my eyes.

The Story of Monchikae Onna

The Japanese legend of the Kosodate yurei originated from a Chinese story that can be traced back to the late 1100s.

The story of Monchikae Onna is about a woman who buys rice-cakes.

In this tragic legend a woman who is pregnant dies and then is buried. Soon afterwards a rice-cake dealer begins to see a strange woman carrying a baby come to his stall.

Rice cakes

She feeds the rice-cakes she buys to her baby.

The dealer wonders about this odd woman who buys his cakes regularly so one night he carefully ties a red string to the woman without her notice.

When she leaves he follows this string. It leads him to a grave hidden among some bushes.

He alerts the still grieving relatives of the woman and they dig up her grave. They find she had given birth posthumously in her coffin.

They take the child to raise as their own and then they cremate the mother’s body.

Again, in this version the yurei appears to want to keep the baby but because of the rice-cake seller’s intervention the child is saved.

China: Chiang-Shih

This traditional Chinese Chiang-Shih folklore legend is about dead bodies that were according to ancient belief able to come back to life because of improper treatment at the end of life or during or after the burial process. 

A common reason this happened was the soul or "po" that, returned was a person who experienced a very violent or painful death. 

Other reasons given were they became angry because their family members failed to provide them with the proper respect due to them after their death or they returned because they were buried in the wrong spot * or their grave was disturbed or moved.

The Chiang-Shih were sometimes known as “hopping ghosts” because of the tradition of burying bodies dressed with their feet bound together--the result when they came back to life they had to hop to move about. These corpses were considered very dangerous when they became reanimated. 

These animated bodies were blind, so they had to rely on their ability to sense the breath of their prey to track them. 

In traditional Chinese belief, the Chiang-Shih could suck the breath out of their victims, they were described as having gale force breath. 

In modern Chinese stories, they are just as likely to suck the blood of their victims--for this traditional legend has evolved, today Chiang-Shih are sometimes considered vampires.

Other legendary supernatural powers that the Chiang-Shih had include: sword-like fingernails and incredibly long eyebrows that they can use to lasso or bind their enemies. 

They also could shape-shift and fly. 

Despite their evolution today into more scary creatures, I prefer the traditional stories about the Chiang-Shih--they are scary too. The following story is one of my favorites.

The corpse in this story was not buried in a timely fashion. Therefore, it became a Chiang-Shih because of this evil spirits were able to enter it.

Four male travelers in Shantung arrived at an inn in the middle of the night. The innkeeper told them no rooms were left but taking pity on them, he led them to a little shack in the back of the inn.

Early that day the innkeeper’s daughter-in-law had died but he was busy had not arranged her burial. The four weary travelers bedded down not realizing her corpse lay on a plank behind a curtain in the same shack.

Three of the men fell asleep immediately but the fourth feeling a sense of impending danger couldn’t relax. He froze as he saw a boney hand draw the curtain aside. 

A monstrous corpse emerged surrounded by a green mist. It had glowing red eyes. He watched in terror as this apparition bent over his sleeping companions and breathed a foul stench of death upon each. All three now lay dead.

The fourth traveler pretended to be asleep and held his breath as the Chiang-Shih breathed on him. As soon as the corpse returned to its plank, he ran out of the shack. 

Hearing him leave the apparition chased him. The man in a panic hid behind a willow tree. But the Chiang-Shih found him.

She lunged at him shrieking. Overcome with fear, the man fainted. This saved him once more for the Chiang-Shih missed him, and her claw-like nails became embedded deep within the tree. She couldn’t extricate them. 

The next morning the innkeeper found her lifeless corpse no longer animated by the evil spirits. The traveler lay unconscious nearby.

*  This notion comes from the belief in feng shui.