- We get that a screaming well is scary, but you could at least go check it out.
They say you can always rely on the kindness of strangers. However, although you can usually find at least one kind soul to come to your aid, getting help from strangers is not a given.
For instance, they might mistake your pained screams for the wailing of a horrible ghost and stay far away.
That’s what happened to Liu Chuanyi. The young Chinese man was trekking in the jungles of Myanmar and Thailand when he suddenly fell into an abandoned well.
Having sustained serious injuries during his fall, Liu found himself hopelessly stuck in the well. He began shouting for help, trying to preserve his strength by only calling out every hour.
The residents of the nearby village heard Liu’s cries. However, they thought the ominously echoing shouts in a strange language were coming from an evil spirit and didn’t dare to approach the well.
It took three days until the locals finally called the police to investigate the noise. Fortunately, once they realized what was going on, they fished Liu out of the well in less than an hour.
Now, however, the police are left with another mystery. They don’t actually know who Liu is and why he was hiking through the forests around the border.
A Serious Fall
The well incident happened in late November in a forested border region between Thailand and Myanmar. Liu, a 22-year-old Chinese man, was walking near a small village in the area when the ground suddenly gave out beneath his feet.
Liu had managed to step on a dried-up, overgrown well. He fell nearly 40 feet before finally hitting the bottom.
Fortunately, Liu survived the fall, but not without injuries. His body hit the walls of the well several times on the way down, resulting in a concussion and a fractured wrist, among other less serious scrapes and bruises.
Climbing out of the well would’ve been nigh impossible even with a healthy wrist, but with a broken one, Liu was hopelessly stuck. He immediately began calling for help, shouting as loud as he could — but no one responded.
After a few hours, the horrible reality of the situation began to sink in. Liu had no water or food, and he realized he might be spending a long time in the well.
If he kept shouting like he had, he would only exhaust himself and possibly die before anyone would find him. So, he started taking breaks, shouting for help for a short while once an hour.
Ghostly Wails
Yet, it took a long while for help to reach Liu. That wasn’t because nobody heard her cries, though.
The residents of the village near the well heard Liu loud and clear. However, they thought the echoing cries were coming from a ghost.
After all, the old well had sat undisturbed by the village for a long time — and now it was screaming. Superstition kicked in and the locals didn’t dare approach the well, fearing evil spirits might attack and drag them in.
However, there’s only so long you can listen to horrible, pained wailing before you decide to do something. After three days, the villagers contacted the local police department to go check out the well.
As the police came to investigate, they found the old well and realized what had really happened. They took quick action and Liu was out of the well within 30 minutes.
And that wasn’t a moment too soon. By the end of this three-day ordeal, Liu was reportedly very weak from dehydration and hunger.
Although the mystery of the wailing well was solved, the local authorities are now stuck with another one. They don’t know why Liu was hiking in the area, which is far from any popular tourism center.
Now, the police are trying to figure out what Liu was doing near the village. However, they’ve also taken a step to protect other wayward wanderers — to the relief of both Liu and the villagers, the old well has been filled and sealed.