Guia Hill — the hungry ghosts targeting joggers in Macau

Guia Hill in Macau is said to be haunted by hungry ghosts (餓鬼, è guǐ) who target joggers exercising on the hill's paths at night. In Chinese Buddhist and folk tradition, hungry ghosts are the spirits of the dead who are condemned to wander the earth in a state of insatiable hunger, often because they were not given proper funeral rites or because they lived lives of extreme greed. Guia Hill, which is crowned by the Guia Fortress and Lighthouse — the oldest lighthouse on the Chinese coast — has been the site of reports from evening joggers who describe feeling someone running behind them, hearing breathing and footsteps that match their pace, and experiencing sudden exhaustion or disorientation. Some joggers report seeing translucent figures crouching beside the path or standing in the undergrowth, watching them with unsettling attention. The hill's forested paths, which wind through dense tropical vegetation, become extremely dark after sunset and are largely deserted despite their proximity to central Macau. During the Hungry Ghost Festival in the seventh lunar month, local residents avoid the hill entirely after dark, believing the hungry ghosts are at their most powerful and dangerous during this period.