Tag Archives: 1950s

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Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine

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What kind of tragedy can be so horrible that it is mostly silenced and forgotten by the world? The massacre of thousands of people that were found in the Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine is one of them. But although often ignored and not talked about in the later years, the haunting rumors of ghosts from the past still has a firm clasp of the place. 

There used to be an abandoned cobalt mine in Gyeongsan in South Korea in full operation and a little easier to access than it is today.

The Cobalt Mine was used during the Japanese occupation where the Japanese used Korean labor to mine gold, silver and then eventually, cobalt, but abandoned it when the mine was emptied. 

During the Korean war, many people, civilians as well as convicts were accused of conspiring with the communists and North Korea. Many of them were brutally massacred in the area and their bodies were thrown into the mines to be forgotten in this so-called Red Hunt from July to September in 1950. 

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The Massacre in the Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine

It is believed that many of the victims were political prisoners that were supposed to be moved from Daegu Prison to Busan Prison and it is estimated that around 2000 to 3 500 people were murdered and tossed into the mines. 

Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine: A massacre is hiding inside the Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine.

There is to this day not spoken a lot about the war crimes that happened and a lot of it has been silenced by both parties. Even by the families that were affected by the massacre as they even to this fear can feel fear of the guilt by association that many of the victims of the massacre was. 

The families affected by this have still not gotten their apology and answers for what happened to their family members as most of the skeletons found have never really been examined and the entrance to the mines simply sealed off.

And most likely, what really happened probably never will see the light of day. 

The Hauntings of Gyeongsan Abandoned Cobalt Mine

But their ghosts created legends of their own as sites of huge atrocities and tragedies have occurred. 

Many legends surround the last owners of the mine that brutally died as well as factory owners of factories that were built close to the mine. One of the last companies to be in operation around the same parts as the mine was a glasses manufacturer. 

The owner of said factury is said to have poured petroleum over himself as well as his sleeping employees before setting them all on fire. They all burned to death. However not really confirmed by any hard evidence. 

Although sealed off and left to be forgotten, the locals are said to avoid the site of the abandoned mines, even to this day. 

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Top 12 Most Haunted Places In South Korea!

Creatrip: Korea’s Most Haunted Places

경산 코발트광산 학살사건 – 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전

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Yeongdeok Haunted House

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Named one of the most haunted houses in South Korea, this house has attracted its fair share of ghost tourists. But is the Yeongdeok Haunted House really haunted by the death of Korean soldiers during the war, or is it simply the decaying look of the house that made the legend?

On a 3 hour KTX ride from Seoul with a high speed train you will find the Yeongdeok haunted house (영덕흉가). Located in Gyeongsang Province, known for its beautiful nature and coastline. The house near the beach has in the later years taken the role as one of the most famous haunted houses in South Korea that are not yet demolished or revamped to something else. 

The ones said to haunt this particular basic building are said to be the student soldiers that lost their lives when almost 800 of them staged a diversion operation at Jangsari beach in Yeongdeok to draw the North Koreans attention away from the well known Battle of Inchon in the Korean War.

Read More: Check out the rest of our ghost stories from Korea

According to locals, around 400 to 700 soldiers lost their lives during this battle and were buried in this area during the Korean War. It is said that while 139 were killed and 92 were wounded, the rest just went missing. 

The house itself was built in October 1980 and supposedly the house is built upon a mass grave of the soldiers that died. Is this true? Some locals claim that no, it isn’t, but then again, the legends uphold the claim and the house has been featured on many lists as Korea’s most haunted.

The Ghost in the Staircase

After the war the Yeongdeok Haunted House, hauntings have been to blame when the owners of the house died in mysterious ways, although no real evidence of any of the owners having actually died has been presented. One variation is that the owner of the house in its earlier days was killed in a car accident and that those buying the house after this died as well. 

In all the legends surrounding the house though it is because of all the people that died during the war here, that it drove the price of the land down and some people saw the opportunity to get it cheap. But then, they didn’t calculate all the souls that came with it. 

The Haunted House: Years without anyone to take care of it has left the Yeongdeok Haunted House on the hill in decay and deterioration, fuelling the haunted house rumours. // Source

In one of the many haunted legends about the house, a young couple once bought the place to turn it into a seafood restaurant as they got it cheap because of the haunted rumors. But not soon after they opened for business strange things started to happen. 

The wife reported spotting a ghost in the staircase, descending from the second floor again and again with the hair hanging down and when she first saw it she is reported to have fainted at the spot by the mere sight of it. It all was too much and they ended up abandoning the place not soon after because of all the incidents that kept occuring in their home. 

The Shamanist Against the Ghosts

A new couple moved into the Yeongdeok Haunted House as the price of the house dropped even further. They were believers of traditional Korean shamanistic beliefs and tried to keep the ghosts at bay with their shamanistic items and rituals. It seems to not have worked as they also moved from the house not soon after. 

This story of shamanism inhabitants has contradicting variations. Some say that they ran away because of the ghosts, some say that they were kicked out because they were squatters, not real owners.

Read More: Check out all our ghost stories from Haunted Houses

Now the hype of the house started to pick up though, and the place attracted ghostbusters and shamans alike to have a look at the house and try to cleanse it as well as getting a few minutes of screentime on TV. 

One shaman that visited the place as a part of a TV show claimed that over ten thousand spirits were present in the house. During this part they supposedly got the hold of recording of voices they didn’t hear when they were on site, although speculations that it has something to do with the radio tower right by the house, is under discussion.

Visitors, or trespassers if you will, complain that a throbbing headache or an intense chill takes hold of them as they explore the abandoned building that is decaying and getting more and more of a haunted look as no one is taking care of the building. It is also rumored that machine equipment is malfunctioning while staying at the place. 

The Ghost of Student Soldiers: The ghosts that are said to be haunting Yeongdeok Haunted House are the dead ones from a battle at Jangsari Beach to lead the attention of North Korea away from Incheon. Here from the movie about the battle: The Battle of Jangsari. // Source

The Truth of the Legend Behind Yeongdeok Haunted House

The truthness to these haunted rumors though can be disputed. What we do know for a fact is that the owners moved to the US. Why? Perhaps not for the paranormal reasons the legend is insisting on. What is a fact though is that the uprooting of the owners led to the neglected buildings starting to deteriorate.

A little footage of the house from around 5 years ago.

The owner, in articles called Mr. Ham is currently residing in the US and is considering demolishing the Yeongdeok Haunted House as it seems to disturb the plans to create a memorial park for those dying in this battle were the supposedly haunting started from. 

So perhaps the same fate of some of the famous abandoned buildings with a haunting reputation will get another addition to the list when this house also gets flattened to the earth, soon to be forgotten.

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8 Haunted Places In South Korea You Didn’t Know Existed

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The most haunted house in Korea – Captain and Clark

전국 3대 흉가 선정, 영덕 ‘귀신 나오는 집’ 헐린다

귀신 나온다는 ‘한국 3대 흉가’는 조작됐다 – 시사저널

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Agnes Keith and the Ghost in her House

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From a house that has seen it all, this American author wrote about the ghost that lived with them. 

“I don’t believe in ghosts. But every day, I see a tall gaunt woman telling her husband goodbye, taking her baby, and walking down the path alone, standing at the bottom of the path and looking back,”

White Man Returns, Agnes Keith
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This is a quote from American author and journalist Agnes Keith’s novel, “White Man Returns” from 1951, a novel she wrote about returning to her beloved house after being imprisoned by Japanese during the war. 

Among the detailing of her everyday life in Malaysia and in that house, snippets of a darker corner of the house take shape. And often, the ghost that resides in the Newlands House is what remains to this day. Especially when the museum itself wants to focus on the dark tourism aspect of it all. 

The Land Below The Wind

Agnes Keith was living with her husband and her son in Sandakan in what we now know as Malaysia. She came to this place in 1934 and found a new place to call home. Being under the British Crown at the time, they lived in the colonial-styled architectured house with their servant. She was writing books like “Land Below The Wind” in 1939 about their life in the then called British North Borneo, which is was then called, with her husband working as a Conservator of Forest. 

The house: Newlands, the home of Agnes Newton Keith in Sandakan, Borneo from 2007.
Photo: Warren Apel

She loved their house and their home and was said to be very well liked by those around them. The house on the hill had a grand view of Sandakan Bay in the front and the Sulu sea from the back. But then the war came and it would be a long time until she would live in the house again. 

The Scar of the War

Like many Europeans on the island Agnes Keith and her family were put in internment camps when the Japanese invaded Borneo. The whole family survived though, and it is said that one of the Japanese camp commandants had read Agnes’s work and made sure to treat the family well. They stayed in the camp until the end of the war in 1945, but she was never the same again. 

“The story of war is always the story of hate; it makes no difference with whom one fights. The hate destroys you.”

Three Came Home, Agnes Keith
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When they returned to Sandakan in 1947, they found their beloved house destroyed. They decided to rebuild nearby, and named the house for Newlands, although it is more known as Agnes Keith House today. But the haunting memories from the war seemed to also manifest in the house as well. Through her writing, she notes about the paranormal activity going on around her. 

They left North Borneo for good in 1952 when she moved to Canada and the house passed to someone else. But the legends about the hauntings didn’t stop with the highly imaginative writer.

The Woman by the bed

G.L Carlson took over the husband’s position as a forest conservator after the Keiths left for Canada. His wife, Rosemary also told stories about apparitions in the bedroom when her husband was away. She woke at dawn and heard the door to the room open and close several times. When she opened her eyes, there was someone there, staring at her. 

“There was a figure standing, leaning over, and looking down at me. The figure appeared to be a female with a white bandage around her head. She was pale faced. She was dressed in what looked like a white, short-sleeved T-shirt or blouse with a wide-shoulder-strapped, dark-coloured pinafore dress. (…) She was quite a short person of normal build, and I could not see the lower part of her body. At this stage, I must have passed out. When I came to, it was already dawn and I was alone.”  

– Rosemary Carlson

The Ghost Resident

Maids, visitors and security guards can tell the same story about a woman shoving up in the stairs or in the corner of the rooms in the house. Places where she doesn’t belong. Or perhaps she belongs there more than anyone else at this point? 

By now the Agnes Keith house has fallen into the hands of the Sabah Museum Department and restored to become a public museum, to keep the house intact as well as the lingering residents that may still be there. 

  

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Agnes Keith: the American author who loved Sabah | Free Malaysia Today (FMT)

Spooktacular Sabah: Agnes Keith House first stop in state’s haunt jaunt push | Malaysia | The Vibes

https://web.archive.org/web/20190614110302/https://www.thepatriots.asia/misteri-kisah-seram-rumah-agam-agnes-keith-sandakan/

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Chaonei No. 81 — Beijing Horror House

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Shadowy figures in the window, chilling entrance during the summer, the old and haunted church in Beijing called Chaonei No. 81, keeps its secrets close to the chest. The famous haunted house is believed to be haunted by a woman said to have taken her life inside.

Chaonei No. 81 ( 朝内81号), also called Chaonei Church as it was built with that in mind, perhaps, the records aren’t clear. The French reimagined baroque architecture from the 20th century stands out amongst the modern Beijing skyscrapers and the Ming dynasty buddhist temples.

Read Also: Check out all of our ghost stories from China

Out of place it has passed from a French manager of the railway or Christian missionaries, different governmental members of the Chinese Republic as well as the Catholic Church. But one thing remains the same, the rumours about a restless spirit that lingers, no matter who lives there. 

The Mystery of the Chaonei Church Building

The story behind the supposed haunted house at Chaonei No. 81 is hard to get straight. As with a lot of buildings before the formation of the People’s Republic of China was formed, because of missing paperwork. Who built the Chaonei Church? Was it the French manager of the railway? Or it might even have been the Qing imperial family building it for the British to use as a church? However it is believed to have been built around 1910, although some claim it is even older.

Read Also: Check out the rest of MoonMausoleums Haunted Houses

Chaonei Church Building: How Chaonei No. 81 ( 朝内81号) looked from across the street in 2014, looming dark in the otherwise bright and busy street. //Photo: Daniel Case/Wikimedia.

By the neighbouring hutong, the traditional streets in Beijing, the house has always been remembered as haunted. And even during the 1970s, during the cultural revolution, the neighbours remember the Red Guard that lived in the Chaonei Church, got so frightened after staying inside of the haunted house, they had to leave after a few days. 

The Woman Hanging from the Rafters

But who frightened its inhabitants, that even the red guard couldn’t handle? According to the most commonly told legend, it is to a woman that once resided in Chaonei No. 81. Or rather, a scorned woman that used to live there, as most haunted histories start with.

The woman that used to live in the Chaonei Church is said to have been a wife or maybe a lover of an officer of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the nationalist party of China) that fought against the communist party during the Chinese civil war in the 1940s. The nationalist lost, and fled to Taiwan as the communist came into power.

The woman was allegedly left behind by her officer man who fled with the army to Taiwan, and she is said to have hung herself from the rafters of the house. 

The Ghost Inside of Chaonei No. 81: According to legend, the ghost haunting Chaonei No. 81 is the spirit of a woman left alone in the house by an officer who fled the country.

Whether the outcome of the war had anything to do with her death is debatable, as some suggest it was more that the officer was never at home, not paying her the attention she needed than the victory of the communists that led her to her decision of taking her life in the Chaonei Church.

Her existence at all is debatable as a lot of things during the civil war are lost, forgotten or even hidden away and a lot of documentation to confirm or deny the story is not there. What we can go by is the word of mouth however, and many that have stayed in Chaonei No. 81 knowing its history say there was never a KMT officer living there, and no woman hung herself in the rafters. 

The history behind Chaonei No. 81 is clouded in mystery, and there seems that no one can really agree on one account. But ghost stories have their own way of ignoring this, and sneaking their way into the mind of those around anyway. And according to the locals, this place has always been haunted. The locals persist in their own lore that she can indeed be heard, especially on those stormy nights, screaming from the empty house during thunder. 

The Vanishing Workers From the Chaonei Church

Even the construction of the house has been up for dispute with strange tales from the Chaonei Church. Like the story of a British priest who supposedly built on the property disappeared before being able to build the church. When a search party was sent, they supposedly found a secret tunnel leading all the way northeast of the premise to the Dashanzi neighborhood. 

There have also been three people, working on construction down in the basement in the building next to Chaonei No. 81 that supposedly vanished into thin air. They got drunk on the job and decided to break into the house by breaking the thin wall that separated the two houses. They were never seen again according to the reports. 

The House that Never Dies

A message to the entrance is put up, telling the visitors that there are no ghosts residing there, contrary to local beliefs, urging the paranormal seekers to stay away from the Chaonei Church.

Warning off people: Chalked notice on Chaonei No. 81 in Chinese, warning of ghosts in the house. Original text: “请勿相信谎言 无鬼” (Please do not believe lies, there are no ghosts)//Photo by Daniel Case//wikimedia

Especially after the horror movie, The House that Never Dies, inspired by the the haunted legends of Chaonei No. 81 and its story, the interest of it came back. And after its release in 2014, up to five hundred people crowded outside the house, causing the catholic church to close the gates, only letting a few in at the time.  

The same thing happened with Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital when a movie was made about the legend and they eventually demolished the entire building because the paranormal seekers were too much and the construction of the building not safe enough.

Keeping the legend alive: The movie trailer from the 2014 movie ‘The House that Never Die’, inspired about the legends surrounding Chaonei 81.

In 2016 however, Chaonei No. 81. interior and outside was renovated and rented out. Perhaps that is what it took to get rid of the spirit and the lore seeping from the old bricks of the Chaonei Church. But there are also those claiming they have an uneasy feeling of dread when walking by the house. And even in the hot summer, with the sun scorching right at the door, the doorway of the mansion somehow always feels cooler than in the shade.

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Featured Picture by Daniel Case source:

Chaonei No. 81

The House That Never Dies  

Dilapidated Mansion Has Had Many Occupants, Maybe Even a Ghost (Published 2013)

This abandoned “Chaonei No.81” house in China is described as “Beijing’s most celebrated haunted building” …  Raising Ghosts: Five of Beijing’s Most Haunted Attractions