What is the yeren?
The yeren is a hominid-type unidentified creature said to live in China’s mountainous areas. Written as “wild man” in Chinese, it is the subject of many sightings especially in the deep forests of Shennongjia in Hubei Province. It is said to be about 2 m tall, covered in reddish-brown hair, and to walk on two legs.
China’s wildman investigations
Stories of hairy wild men living in the mountains have long been told in China. In the 1970s, after a series of sightings, Chinese research institutions organized large-scale expeditions to Shennongjia and searched the forests. They collected footprints and what was said to be hair, but found no evidence that settled the yeren’s existence.
What is the yeren really?
Proposed identities include the golden snub-nosed monkey, which lives in the forests of Shennongjia, as well as Asian black bears and rhesus macaques. Some imagine it could be a surviving Gigantopithecus, a giant ape that once lived in Asia. Shennongjia is now a World Natural Heritage site.
