A woman has claimed to have seen the Chinese Loch Ness Monster after spotting a 15m-long creature in a small lake.
Captured in footage, Ms Li claims to have seen the strange creature while visiting Tianchi Lake in northwest China on August 31.
Ms Li, from Shanghai, said she heard what sounded like fish splashing in the water.
She told local media: “At first I thought it might be several fish, but on closer inspection it was just one long silvery creature.
“I felt like it could be about 15 meters (50 feet) long.”
Phone footage captured by Li shows the motionless surface of the lake disturbed by something swimming below and causing waves and ripples.
Pictured is a creature that a woman says is 50ft long in Tianchi Lake of Tianshan Mountain, Xinjiang, China.
She claimed the creature moved in a regular pattern and swam quite fast.
The scenic area staff then responded saying that due to the unclear quality of the video and the lack of a clear description, they could not determine what exactly it was.
Staff added, however, that similar situations had been reported by other tourists in the past, but they too were unable to identify the species due to the distance.
They added: “The imagination is quite vivid. We hope that there really is an aquatic creature capable of satisfying everyone’s curiosity, but it is difficult to say whether it exists or not.
Staff also noted that known aquatic creatures in Tianchi include, among others, rainbow trout. However, none of them exceed three feet in length.
In 2020, a similar creature was reportedly “spotted” on the surface of Tian Chi, or “Heavenly Lake,” on Changbai Mountain in Jilin Province.
The Alpine lake is renowned for being home to a mysterious beast – China’s equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster – which was said to have been first sighted almost six decades ago.
Mountain guardian Xiao Yu told MailOnline he spotted the seven-foot-wide creature while patrolling the scenic spot.
Eerie footage captured by employee Xiao Yu shows a black round object floating on the surface of Tian Chi, or “Lake of Heaven”, on Changbai Mountain in northeast China.
Since the first reported sighting in 1962, dozens of people have claimed to have witnessed what is known as the Lake Paradise Monster.
Xiao Yu, who has worked in Mount Changbai National Park as a souvenir seller for the past decade, said he saw the unusual object in the middle of the lake.
“I went to Lake of Heaven to shoot footage as usual,” Xiao Yu, 28, told MailOnline. “I didn’t notice it at first, but suddenly I saw a black dot.”
The footage, filmed from an observation platform 500 meters (1,640 feet) above the lake, shows the black circular object remaining motionless on the surface of the water.
The park worker can be heard saying, “An unknown object has appeared at Lake of Heaven. The black spot looks small (on the video) but is actually quite large.
The “mysterious beast” remained visible for several minutes while the mountain guardian filmed the video. He finally left and returned to work.
“I’ve had similar sightings before, but they were clearly fishing boats,” Xiao Yu added. “But this time I couldn’t tell what it was. It was definitely not a boat.
The protected lake, covering 4.9 square kilometers (1.9 square miles), sits on the border between China and North Korea.
