Chaonei No. 81 — Beijing's most famous haunted mansion

Chaonei No. 81 is an abandoned French Baroque mansion in Beijing's Chaoyangmen neighbourhood that has earned the title of 'the most haunted house in China.' The three-story building was reportedly constructed in 1910 for a British diplomat or a Chinese Kuomintang official — accounts vary. According to one popular legend, the last owner, a Kuomintang official, fled to Taiwan in 1949 when the Communists took power, abandoning his concubines in the house. The concubines, unable to leave and facing persecution, hanged themselves in the building. Since then, the mansion has been the subject of persistent ghost stories. Visitors report hearing screaming and weeping from inside the locked building, seeing lights in the windows at night, and encountering a heavy, oppressive atmosphere that surrounds the property. Workers who have entered for renovation attempts have described tools being thrown, equipment failing, and shadows moving through the upper rooms. The mansion gained international fame when it was featured in the 2014 Chinese horror film 'The House That Never Dies,' which drew massive audiences and brought new waves of curious visitors to the site. Beijing's rapid modernization has left the decaying mansion standing incongruously among gleaming skyscrapers, a haunted relic of a turbulent past.