Today’s story is about one of the most famous, potentially paranormal events of all time, except almost no Westerners have heard of it because it happened in China.
Late on the evening of July 27th, 1977, a 21-year-old farmer named Hang Yano walked down a wide dusty road in the little farming village of Bea, located in northern China. It had been a very hard day on the rice farm where Hang worked because they were all preparing for the autumn harvest. But even though Hang was totally exhausted and worn down as he walked down this road, he was whistling an upbeat tune because for the first time in a long time, Hang was actually excited about the future.
Hang had grown up in a poor family and he hadn’t even finished elementary school. He still lived with his parents in a tiny house and basically every day of his life was the same. He got up at sunrise, he walked to work, he worked all day until he barely could even stand, and then he would walk home and he would go to bed. But the reason Hang was now feeling kind of excited about his future was because he had just gotten engaged to a beautiful girl in a neighboring village and their plan was to get married after the autumn harvest.
Hang was already hard at work, literally building them a house that they could move into after they got married. And in fact, on this particular night, that was where Hang was going. He was going to the property where he was in the middle of building this house, and he was going there not to work on the house anymore, but really just to admire his property because again, he was just so excited about the future.
Hang turned the corner and his beautiful half-constructed home came into focus. The foundation, the walls, and the ceiling were all complete. All he had left to do was put in the windows and the doors. And so Hang walked up and ran his hand over the beautiful brick he’d laid around the outside of the property. Brick was not cheap. He had worked extra hours to afford this brick, and so he was just so proud of it. And he ran his hand over it, and then he kind of stepped back and kind of imagined the house when it was all done. And then when he felt satisfied that he had seen enough, he just kind of nodded and turned and just continued walking back towards his home, his parents’ home, which was only a few minutes away.
When Hang got to his home, he went inside and his mom already had a meal made for him. It was just some rice and veggies. And so Hang sat down and began eating, and then his parents came over and they began chatting. And then of course, the conversation shifted to Hang’s upcoming marriage because that’s basically all Hang ever wanted to talk about. And then by about 10 p.m., Hang was so tired that he crawled into his bed and he fell asleep almost immediately.
The next morning, when Hang’s parents woke up, they discovered that Hang was not in his bed. Now, this was not totally unusual because they knew their son was a really hard worker and it wasn’t unusual for him to wake up really, really early to head out to the farm to begin his workday. But a little while later, the workers at the rice farm where Hang worked, they saw Hang had not come to work. And because that was so out of character for him, one of the workers actually walked to Hang’s parents’ home to see if he was okay.
And when Hang’s mother found out her son had not shown up to work, you know, she was really worried. But she told this worker, “Oh, you know, my son must have gone to the house he’s building. You know, go over there and see if he’s there.” But the worker from the rice farm went to Hang’s property he was building and nobody was there. And so when he came back and told Hang’s mother this, sent her into a total panic because really for her, this was like completely out of character for her son. He would never miss work. He would never just disappear like this. Something was wrong.
So Hang’s mother sent this rice farm worker to go find her husband and tell him what was going on with Hang. And then in the meantime, Hang’s mother just walked outside and began going door to door asking neighbors if they knew where her son was and if they wouldn’t mind coming out and helping her look.
Now, at this time, the village of Bea was a relatively small place where all the residents more or less knew each other. And so it did not take long for the news of Hang being missing to spread all across Bea and the community really came out in force to go look for him. And so by the afternoon, there were people on bikes riding all around, calling out for Hang. People were going to neighboring villages to see if he was there. Another group of villagers went to Hang’s fiancee’s home and they spoke to her and she had no idea where Hang was.
And so, by about the early afternoon when so many people couldn’t find any leads to where Hang had gone, it became clear that really nobody had a clue what happened to him. Now, Bea at the time was incredibly isolated. This is a small town where most of the people who live there don’t have phones, they don’t have cars, they ride their bikes everywhere, and there were no roads that connected Bea to any other place. Now, there was a paved road that went through Bea, but it actually just came to an end on the outskirts of Bagal, so there was just no way to go to other places, at least not efficiently. Basically, if you lived in Bea at the time, there was a finite number of places you could go, and all these people that had gone out looking for Hang had searched all of those places, and Hang just was not there. And they discovered his bike was still leaning up against his parents’ house, and his work clothes, which he wore basically every single day, were still folded up neatly inside of his room. And so, wherever Hang was, he was on foot, and he was still in his pajamas.
That night, Hang’s parents would contact The Village Committee, which was basically like the governing body for Bea, and the Village Committee decided that this was serious enough because, again, they’re thinking, this is impossible, where is this guy? That they decided to contact the police. But when the police got this call, they did not launch an investigation right away because they had limited resources, and there was no sign of foul play here. It was very weird that Hang was missing, but he was an adult, and if he wanted to go vanish somewhere, it was kind of like, okay, you know, an adult, you can do that. And so, Hang’s family and the rest of the Bea villagers were forced to just kind of wait and see if Hang came back.
But over the next few days, Hang did not come back, and there was still no new information about what might have happened to him. Early on the morning of August 5th, 8 days after Hang went missing, and still by this point, there’s no sign of him, the deputy director of the Bea Village Committee came running up the road to Hang’s parents’ house and knocked on the door. When the door opened up, it was Hang’s father, and the deputy director handed him a telegram he had just gotten and said, “Read it.” And so, Hang’s father took the telegram and began reading it, and as he did, his eyes went wide, and then when he was done, he looked up, and he was just so confused.
The telegram had been sent 8 days earlier, at around 9:00 a.m. on July 28th. So basically, right around the time that Hang’s family discovered Hang was missing, was when this telegram was sent. But for whatever reason, the telegram had been very delayed, and so they were just receiving this telegram now, 8 days later. And the contents of this telegram made no sense. It said that just 9 hours after Hang had fallen asleep in his parents’ home, he was discovered lying on the sidewalk in the middle of this bustling city called Nanjing, located 600 miles to the south of Bea. Now, the reason Hang’s father and the deputy director were so confused by this telegram was this was impossible. Remember, Hang does not have a car, so the only way he could get around was on foot or on his bike. And we know he left his bike by his house, so he’s on foot, and very likely in his pajamas. And what, he’s going to go 600 miles? I mean, even if he walked the 30 miles to the nearest train station, 9 hours, because that’s how much time it took from falling asleep to being discovered in the city, is not enough time to go the remaining 570 miles to Nanjing.
So, Hang’s father and the deputy director talked about this and they both decided that this just can’t be true. Clearly, somebody has mistaken some other person for Hang because he cannot possibly be all the way in Nanjing now. This telegram said that Hang was being held in a deportation center in Shanghai. So, Hang’s father and the deputy director decided they would send a telegram back to the sender at this deportation center and tell them, “Hey, if this really is Hang, he should have a very specific birthmark on his wrist.” And so, when they sent this telegram off, they fully expected to get one back that said, “Oops, mistaken identity, you know, it wasn’t him.” But they got a reply relatively quickly, and it said, “Oh yeah, he’s got that exact birthmark. It’s definitely Hang, but he’s very confused. He doesn’t really know what’s going on.” And so, somebody from your village has to go get him.
Hang arrived back home in the middle of August, so about 2 weeks after he had gone missing. And as soon as he got there, his fiancée and his parents were so happy to see him. And pretty soon, a steady stream of friends and neighbors and other family members began coming to Hang’s house to talk to him, to hear his story, to hear about what happened. But Hang really didn’t understand what had happened to him, and so mostly, he just didn’t answer any questions he got asked. He just kind of kept his head down and just kept saying, “You know, I don’t know. I don’t know what happened.” And then really when his family pressed him and said, “You know, like, you got to tell us, you know, this is so crazy, what happened?” He would say, “Look, like, I’m going to tell you what happened, but I don’t even know if I can believe the things I’m going to tell you.”
And so, Hang would say, you know, all he could remember was he went to bed in his own bed in Bea, and then the next morning he woke up and he was laying on the sidewalk. And when he opened his eyes, he saw there was this big swimming pool. And then near it was a sign that said “Nanjing.” And so, that was how he put together that he was in Nanjing. And then almost immediately, these two police officers wearing all white just kind of appeared out of nowhere, and they walked up to Hang, they scooped him up, and without really saying anything to him, they brought him to that deportation center in Shanghai, which is a place where people who seem confused or mentally ill would be sent in order to help them get home. And that was it. That was Hang’s entire story, that he just basically woke up in Nanjing with no idea how he got there.
And so, after he told his family, they all just kind of looked at him like, “Really? Like, that’s what happened? That makes no sense.” But Hang, I mean, he was completely lucid, he was explaining it really specifically and really simply. I mean, he looked and sounded exactly like he normally did, and he seemed very honest as he was telling the story. Over the next few weeks, Hang kind of reintegrated back into his life, but things just were not the same. People were now scared of him. I mean, kids literally ran away from him when they saw him because rumors were going around town that he himself, his body was haunted or something, and so kids were scared of him, and other villagers would openly gossip about him right in front of him.
I mean, even his beloved fiancée admitted to feeling really uncomfortable around him now. And while all of this was obviously very upsetting for Hang, he did also understand why people were acting this way. I mean, this is a very anomalous thing that’s happened to him, and he did not have a good explanation for this totally insane event that he was a part of. And so, he just kind of got it. And in fact, Hang himself was kind of terrified of himself. I mean, at night when he would go to bed, he would be terrified that the second he closed his eyes, he was going to be transported hundreds or thousands of miles away to some totally unknown place, and maybe this time he wouldn’t even be able to get back again.
But as the days wore on, Hang continued to wake up in his own bed in Bea, which over time kind of made him feel more secure that whatever happened to him was a one-time thing and it’s not going to happen again. However, Hang would be wrong. On September 8th, 1977, so 3 weeks after Hang had returned back home, he went to sleep in his bed in the village of Bea. But when he woke up the next morning, he was not there.
The first thing Hang noticed when he woke up that morning were the sounds around him were totally different. They were not right. Normally, when he was asleep in his home, he would hear the sound of his mother and father snoring right by him, and he might hear some insects or birds out his window. And those sounds were gone. Instead, he heard what sounded like footsteps, but not ordinary footsteps. They were footsteps of somebody walking on cement who was wearing high heels, like a clicking sound.
And then Hang also became aware of the fact that his face was clearly pressed up against cement. He was laying on the ground. But Hang couldn’t open his eyes. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t move his body. And so he’s just laying there on cement with his eyes closed, listening to the sound of these footsteps, these high heels getting closer and closer and closer. And as they did, his anxiety was growing and growing. He had no idea who this person was. And then these footsteps, they got right up to him and then passed by him. And Hang felt the breeze as this person walked right past him.
And then after this person in high heels had kind of walked off in the other direction, Hang finally was able to wrench open his eyes and he sat up and he looked around. And one, he couldn’t find anybody. It was totally abandoned all around him. So whoever had those high heels on had somehow vanished in plain sight. And then also, as Hang continued to look around him, it looked like he was in the middle of this city. But again, there’s nobody out there. It’s like this abandoned city street. All he had in front of him was this clock up on a building that said 1:00 a.m. And so pretty soon, Hang was just kind of walking in circles, screaming out for help. And right when he was about to just start sprinting in any one direction in hope that help would be somewhere out there, Hang felt a tap on his shoulder. And then the person tapping him from behind him said, “Are you Hang Yan Sho?”
Hang spun around and he saw there were these two men in military uniforms standing there. And for a second, Hang felt relieved. Somebody was here to help him. But then he thought to himself, how do they know my name? What’s going on here? So he asked them, “How do you know my name?” But the two men didn’t answer. Instead, they told him that he was at a Shanghai railway station 700 miles from Bea. And that they, these two soldiers, were here to take Hang to a nearby army base.
At this point, Hang was so scared he just didn’t know what to do. So he just wound up going with these two soldiers, who put him in the back of a Jeep, and then they hopped in and began driving. And they drove him out of this weird abandoned city where he had woken up.
After driving for some time, they arrived at this huge army base that had all these rows of fencing around it with razor wire on top, and all these sentries that guarded all the doors. These two soldiers brought him through several of these checkpoints. And then, when they reached the very last one, they stopped the car. They got out, Hang got out too, and the two soldiers that were with him grabbed Hang’s shoulders and they basically led him through the last checkpoint, which was manned by armed guards.
And as Hang was led through this gate, the armed guards seemed to not even notice the soldiers or Hang. It was like they were invisible to the armed guards. But either way, they got through the final checkpoint. And then the two soldiers that were carrying Hang led him to this kind of nondescript big building. They opened up the door and they began walking down this long hallway that kind of zigged and zagged. It was like a maze of different directions you could go. And then finally, they brought Hang right to this big door that said “Division Headquarters” over it.
And then, before Hang could say anything, one of the two soldiers that was with him knocked on the door. And then, before anybody could respond, that same soldier reached down, opened it up, swung the door in, and then they pushed Hang inside and stepped in after him, and shut the door behind them. In front of Hang was this big desk, and sitting behind this desk was a very senior-looking military official wearing a uniform. And this official, when they looked up and saw Hang standing there, they got up to their feet and put their hands on their gun and said, “What are you doing here? How’d you get in here?”
And Hang, sensing there was something wrong, threw his hands up to show he was not a threat and pointed behind him and said, “They brought me here.” And the military official, who still had his hand on his gun, looked behind Hang and said, “Who brought you here?” And Hang turned around and he saw the two soldiers who had picked him up and driven him here and led him to this room. They were gone, which was impossible because Hang would have heard them leave. He didn’t hear anything, the door never opened, they just somehow were gone.
A second later, the senior military official had pulled out his radio and he was screaming commands. And then another second later, armed soldiers came running into the room. They grabbed Hang, who still had his hands up, they came in, they arrested Hang, and they began asking him all these questions about how he got in here. How did you get through the guards? Did you climb the fence? Did you cut the fence? How did you get in here? It’s not possible that you are here right now. But Hang did not have any answers. All he could say was, “The two soldiers, they brought me here.”
A couple of days later, Hang would be bust back to Bea. And again, his friends and family and everybody in town had all these questions about what happened. But again, Hang just had no answers. And then just 11 days after coming back home the second time, Hang would disappear again. And this time, he would tell people he encountered two men who told him they were the same two men from the other two times he had gone missing.
You had the first instance where he woke up and two police officers in white picked him up off the ground and brought him to the deportation center. And then the second time was the military base where you had those two soldiers who brought him through the gates and brought him to division headquarters. Basically, these two men he encountered on the third trip were saying they were the same men across all three instances.
And on this third instance that he went missing, Hang said these two men put him on their backs and they flew him to nine different cities around China for reasons unknown. And then they flew him back to Bea and just dropped him off right outside his house near a tree. And that was it.
Now, of course, this final disappearance sounds the most absurd because what, he was flying on the backs of people to all these different cities? That doesn’t make any sense. But when Hang was kind of aggressively questioned about this third story because it sounded the most made up as compared to the other two, it would turn out Hang had all this kind of insider information about each of the nine cities that he supposedly was flown to by these two men. He knew the weather in each of those cities on the night that he was gone. He knew what shows were playing on the night he was gone. And he also just had really specific descriptions of where he was in each of these cities when they got there that all checked out.
Now, you’ve got to remember that getting that information correct would have been really hard for Hang. At the time, he did not have internet access. He didn’t have a phone. He didn’t have a car. I mean, he lives in an isolated small village in rural China. So the idea that literally the morning after all this happens, he’s flown to these different cities, that he would have all this information perfectly correct, that’s hard to do. That would be hard to lie about.
As of today, no one has ever been able to debunk Hang’s stories. Basically, there’s enough legitimacy and verifiable information in his stories that you really can’t discount them. They really could have happened. Add in the fact that Hang actually took a lie detector test and passed it, and suddenly you’re looking at a story that, as crazy as it sounds, really could have happened.
And so Hang’s story today is considered far and away the most famous UFO story in China’s history because the leading theory here is that Hang must have been abducted by aliens, and that’s how he was being moved around to all these places. And maybe those two men that kept showing up in each of these events were the extraterrestrials that had scooped him up. Nobody knows. But that is the theory.
As for Hang, he wishes none of this had ever happened because his disappearances and whatever happened to him basically wrecked his life. His fiancée broke up with him because she was so uncomfortable around him, and there was a lot of stigma around Hang, especially in the village where everybody thought he was a liar.
On top of that, all these news and film and TV crews came to the village because they wanted to shoot shows and documentaries about Hang. Hang did not want anything to do with them, but all these people coming to the village for him upset the rest of the villagers.
Furthermore, there was a lengthy investigation by the police and the military to try to figure out how Hang got into that army base. There were layers and layers of security that he somehow got through, and all those armed guards watching the gates said they never saw Hang walk through. Hang claimed he literally just walked through the gate with the two soldiers carrying him through.
Today, Hang still lives in Bea. He has a son and a daughter and grandchildren, but he refuses to talk about what happened to him because it wrecked his life.