Ghosts! They're real! And these are the places in Shanghai they hang out in!

Oh, man. Here we go!

(Disclaimer: Ghosts are not real. They don't hang out. Anywhere. This one's just a bit of fun for Halloween. These are five places in Shanghai that have accrued some amount of urban myth amongst the locals…)

(Double disclaimer: …because they're really, super haunted.)

Ghosts in Our Midst: Jing'an Metro Station, Line 2

Surprise!

This might be somewhere you pass by on your work commute every day, right!

Well, it's haunted. At least it used to be. Back in 2003 when it opened, passengers and workers reported strange experiences when they were in this metro station. Weird noises. Feelings of unease. Seeing things out of the corner of their eye — that sort of thing.

Something just wasn't quite right in Jing'an Metro Station, Line 2.   

This all culminated in an incident when a bao'an, sitting in his office watching a security camera, saw a spectral apparition descend onto the waiting platform, PULL THE HEART OUT OF A GIRL WAITING FOR THE SUBWAY, and then drag her lifeless body down the platform by her hair!

Apparently, the sight was so ghastly, he fainted. He came about, raised the alarm, called the cops, screamed bloody murder, and all the rest — but they never found the ghost.  Or the girl.

Shortly after this incident, the metro station hired para-specialists to rid the place of the bad mojo. Really. And no other incidents have been reported since.

But rumor has it that the security feed has been classified at the highest levels of government…

The Ghost Station: Caobao Lu Metro Station, Line 1

Metro Stations — they're just creepy places. This is another metro station famous in urban legend for being haunted. Built near a graveyard, it's well known for having just terrible fengshui. It's known as the "ghost station" and suffers from strange incidents: violent accidents, sudden breakdowns of trains, being the station that I have to go to for work every day…

Just terrible things.

Staff who work here have claimed they've bumped into ghosts in the dark.  They've heard laughter echoing down the tunnels. Once, a passenger reported hearing someone call for help down the train. When they went to investigate…. NO ONE WAS THERE.

Ehhh, alright, the next ones are better.

Here There Be Dragons: Longhua Temple

A temple named after a mythological dragon that once supposedly occupied its grounds, and a graveyard dedicated to victims of a devastating massacre, this area has more than its fair share of ghost stories. In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek worked with local gangsters like Du Yuesheng to try and ensure that his rival political faction would be wiped out forever. More than 5,000 people are believed to have been executed, but some -- including Zhou Enlai -- escaped and continued the Communist cause.

But yeah. HAUNTED.

A Bridge to the Next World: The Nomandie

Yeah, there's good reason tons of people stand outside this thing every weekend and take pictures of it.

During the Cultural Revolution, several people threw themselves off the roof of this iconic building. Indeed, suicide and this building became so closely associated in the minds of the locals that they started to refer to the building as "The Diving Board".

THE DIVING BOARD! Brrrrr!

The most famous of The Normandie's suicidal sirens was Shangguan Yunzhu, whose films from the 1940s were later denounced as "poisonous weeds". Some claim that they can still smell the actress's perfume under the door of her long since abandoned room, and others claim they've heard a thumping sound on the ground below after seeing her bedroom window slide itself open.

The Mysterious Abandoned Church in Xinzhuang: La Piazza San Marco

The borders of Minhang and Songjiang boast a strange European accent. It all looks so peaceful with beautiful rivers and quiet compounds.

Or... is it?

On Xinsong Lu at Chunjiu Lu, you've got to see this abandoned church. It hasn't been in use for like 20 years, but is not knocked down or being reconstructed or anything. Inside the building:  ashes, broken furniture, detritus, and some pretty emo graffiti on the walls from the wanghong who have broken into the place. The main gate is closed but if you walk around on the sides, you will likely find the hidden doors unlocked.

And when you get busted…. Just tell them you read about it on That’s Shanghai.

Happy Halloween!

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