The Ghost on the Eighth Floor of the Fusuijing Building

In one of the old communist high rises in Beijing, it is said that the ghost on the eighth floor is still haunting the Fusuijing Building after being wrongly accused.

As a product of the Great Leap Forward period in China, they built the Fusuijing Building in 1958. The leap was an economic and social campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to reconstruct the country to a communist society with the commune life as the goal.

Read More: Check out all our collection of ghost stories from China

Through the Great Leap Forward from 1958 to 1962, the country saw an economic and agricultural disaster leading to the one of the largest famines in human history that ended with the death of millions of people.

The Home for Communism in the Fusuijing Building

It was not only the agricultural and farming aspects of the country that was turned into a commune based and not privately owned thing, but also the cities were affected. One of the things they decided was to build high rise buildings designed for commune living, also in the big cities. This was the idea when they built the huge Z shaped Fusuijing Building (福綏境公寓) in Beijing.

“The building is equipped with gas, heating and elevators; residents don’t have to cook at all – they can go to the canteen and eat whatever they want; there will be a club where people can play board games or do sports, a movie room where they can watch movies any time, and a library, public bathroom, a medical center and a grocery store… The building is like society itself, a miniature version of an ideal society, where people live like a big family. It will basically be communism,”

This was written by the celebrated Chinese writer Shi Tiesheng who had his teacher talking about the building that rose high above the traditional hutong area surrounding it.

The building is on No. 1 Santiao in Xicheng District, eight storey high and was the first residential building to install elevators in the city. But even if the dream of the building was designed for the perfect communist life with a collective dining hall, activity rooms and kindergartens, the commune living boom came to an end pretty quickly.

The cafeteria was only open for a few days as there was food shortage and people started cooking in the hallways and the walls of the building were blackened with soot after a few years. After decades of decline in people living there, the building itself started to deteriorate and the place has in many places become a hazardous place to be.

The Ghost on the Eighth Floor

This has now become one of the four major ghost houses in Beijing and is well known among Beijingers. The famous legend about the Ghost on the Eighth Floor started circulating as the residents of the building moved out and now the building mostly attracts those interested in ghost hunting.

According to one version of the legends there was a woman who was framed by her husbands’ lover as a rightist and enemy of the state. She was then imprisoned on the eighth floor in the building where she died. For how long and from what is not often mentioned.

Every year on her death anniversary, although not really specified when, the whole building seems to darken almost and the lights are difficult to keep on and only gives off a dim light. You can also hear the sound of a woman crying.

The Mysterious Fusuijing Building

There have been more than one movie about this particular legend, which according to the stories, scared people to death in the theaters. There have also been several horror movie adaptations that tanked in the box office, but nevertheless draws people to the building from time to time to explore these haunted rumors.

The fame of the Ghost on the Eighth Floor has attracted many curious individuals and thrill-seekers over the years. Urban legends and tales of paranormal encounters continue to circulate, adding to the mystique surrounding the haunted Fusuijing Building.

Visitors who dare to venture into the building often claim to feel an eerie presence as they ascend to the eighth floor. The atmosphere becomes palpably colder, and whispers echo throughout the dimly lit hallways. Some have reported seeing a shadowy figure lurking in the corners, while others have experienced inexplicable phenomena, such as doors slamming shut or objects moving on their own.

In one of the old communist high rises in Beijing, it is said that the ghost on the eighth floor is still haunting the Fusuijing Building after being wrongly accused. — **Fusuijing Building**: The facade of the Fusuijing Building were it it said that the 8th floor is haunted by a woman that were held captured there. //Source: Wikimedia

Whether one believes in the paranormal or dismisses it as mere folklore, the Ghost on the Eighth Floor of the Fusuijing Building continues to captivate the imaginations of those intrigued by tales of the supernatural. The building stands as a testament to an era defined by lofty ideals and the tumultuous consequences of societal experiments.

As the legend endures and each passing year marks the anniversary of the ghostly apparition’s existence, the Fusuijing Building remains a destination for those who seek an encounter with the inexplicable. Although the truth behind the legend may forever remain a mystery, the ghost on the eighth floor continues to haunt both the building and the collective imagination of those drawn to its haunted history.