- Two people trapped in Beijing mountains for nearly 30 hours avoided rescue calls due to superstition
- The pair, a 73-year-old man and 58-year-old woman, were foraging for herbs when they went missing
- Both had hearing impairments and did not carry phones due to lack of signal in the area
Two people in Beijing were trapped in a mountain for nearly 30 hours, but they did not respond to rescuers because of a superstition. The pair had heard rescue teams calling their names but believed that answering such voices in the mountains could bring bad luck and danger, reported the South China Morning Post.
Police and firefighters in Beijing's Huairou district received a call on the evening of July 29 after two individual from a nearby village went missing while foraging for herbs in a wild mountain area.
A 73-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman, often went foraging together. Both had hearing impairments.
They did not carry mobile phones because there was no signal in the mountainous region. Rescuers were also told that the pair had no food or water with them.
Rescue teams were quickly formed and began searching for the two people through the night. After 17 hours of effort, rescuers finally located them, who were extremely exhausted after being trapped for nearly 30 hours.
After finding them, rescuers learned that the pair had heard their calls long before they were located.
However, they chose not to respond because they believed in the superstition that if someone hears their name being called in the mountains, they should not respond or show that they are thirsty or hungry.
According to Chinese folklore, demons in the mountains are believed to be able to copy the voices of familiar people and call out to those who become lost.
The belief says that responding to such voices can lure a person's soul and lead to further confusion and danger.
In the case of the trapped pair, they not only avoided responding to the rescuers calls but also walked in the opposite direction to move away from the voices. As a result, they missed several opportunities to be rescued.
