It's Ghost Month AND Friday the 13th, Time to Get Scared Sh***less

The Ghost Month is the seventh lunar month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar and started this year on Aug 8. In honor of this, we reached out to the organizer of Beijing’s very own haunted walking tours, Jim Nobles, to find out what makes him tick.

On this very day, it's a rare twofer of superstition – or twoferstition, if you will – as Friday the 13th falls during Ghost Month, the spookiest lunar slice of the Chinese calendar. With this special convergence of Chinese and Western myths, who better to turn to than Jim Nobles. 

Californian Jim Nobles has been a Beijing resident for 8-1/2 years, where he’s an educator by day and scares the sh*t out of people by night. 

Driven by the pursuit of adventure and a rich appreciation of Beijing’s legends and lore, Nobles started conducting walking tours of ghostly areas of the city two years ago via his organization Bizarre Beijing. We talked to him about his rather unusual nocturnal pursuits.

How did a laowai like you get into doing ghost tours of Beijing?
I’m a lifelong lover of horror movies and all things scary! I used to write horror movie reviews for Rotting Flesh Radio Podcast and I’m the founder of the Beijing Horror Film Society, which regularly screened scary movies in local venues for quite a number of years. I happen to notice that most major cities around the world have “haunted” or “ghost" tours, and I felt Beijing could definitely use one as well!

Is Beijing a particularly haunted place? 
Yes! With the city’s long history and the Chinese fascination with ghosts and spiritualism, Beijing is in fact very haunted. 

Are you concerned that this will encourage people to become more superstitious? 
No, this is for entertainment purposes only. We don’t encourage the belief in anything supernatural – we only talk about stories and legends … and have fun scaring the sh*t out of people!

What's your favorite creepy spot in town?
Sanlitun Bar Street after 2am... just kidding. Actually, Fox Tower at Dongbianmen after dark is one of the creepiest spots in the city. Just inside the southeast corner of the Second Ring, the Fox Tower has for centuries been rumored to be haunted by “fox spirits” (狐狸精 húlíjīng), and legend has it that the guards posted along the old city walls would refuse to spend the night there. It’s also where the body of Pamela Werner – the subject of the book Midnight in Peking – was found. Her killer has never been identified.

Who are your typical guests?
Mostly expats, but we also get local Chinese as well. They come from all walks of life: students, teachers, diplomats, business people, you name it. They all like a good scare.

Give me an example of one of the more visceral reactions you’ve had.
During a tour of the Caishikou Execution Grounds, I was telling my guests a ghost story in the park and at the conclusion of the story, a flock of bats suddenly flew over everyone…several of my guests took off running and screaming.

When’s the next tour?
We’ve lined up two events: a Hungry Ghost Festival Feast at the Chinese Opera Guild Hall (which was built over a graveyard), and we’ll be working with Our Beijing to do an evening e-bike tour of Beijing’s various haunted sites on Aug 18 and Aug 20.

To sign up for these tours (and keep abreast of other creepy happenings in Beijing, follow Bizarre Beijing at WeChat ID:BizarreBeijing

Images: Bizarre Beijing