8 of the most haunted places in Asia
Imagine this: you head out on a camping trip with a couple of your best buds, with the intent of spending a few nights in gorgeous wilderness. You huddle around a campfire, singing kumbaya as you munch on smores and hotdogs, all while enjoying the tranquility of nature.
Sounds like a harmless weekend getaway, doesn’t it? For the group of friends in the movie Blair Witch, however, their venture into the Black Hills Forest in rural Maryland, US, is anything but tranquil.
We won’t give out any spoilers, but we’ll tell you this much: the Black Hills Forest is terrifying place to be in (you won’t find us camping there anytime soon).
Asia is also home to a slew of notoriously haunted locations, feared by locals and ventured into only by the most courageous of thrill seekers. Complete with spooky figures and unspeakable things that go bump in the night, these infamous places can easily give Blair Witch’s Black Hills Forest a run for their money.
First Hotel (Bangkok, Thailand)
Photo: HotelThailand.com
If you’re a shopaholic, you probably love Bangkok’s shopping scene. One of Bangkok’s largest shopping malls is MBK Mall, beloved by bargain hunters who stock up on piles and piles of in-season clothes.
If you’re booking this particular hotel that’s conveniently close to MBK Mall however, you might just find a little more than you bargained for.
In the mall’s vicinity is First Hotel, an ancient, white-walled building with musty rooms and dim lighting.
In 1988, a huge fire ravaged a large part of the hotel, leaving 13 dead - including Singaporean starlet, Shi Ni, and her mother.
In the decades since then, guests have reported sighting charred figures ambling across the hallways. Perhaps these poor souls are still desperately trying to escape the burning premises from yonder year…
Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital (Gyeonggi-do, South Korea)
Photo: UTAOT
Every year, thousands break into this building, which is reputedly one of South Korea’s most haunted locations.
The Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital was a fully functional asylum until 1995, when government officials came to investigate the mysterious deaths that were occurring in the facility.
That was when the owner, who was rumoured to have imprisoned and tortured patients, reportedly fled to America.
Others say that the real reason the hospital closed its doors was because of sanitation and economic issues.
Whatever the reason, the building, together with all its equipment, beds, and fixtures, have been abandoned since its closure two decades ago.
Ash grey walls and thick layers of rust give the building a spine-chilling, sinister guise.
Witnesses have claimed to have seen ghostly apparitions of staff and patients in the building, coupled with creepy disembodied voices.
First World Hotel (Genting Highlands, Malaysia)
Photo: Wikipedia
This hotel sets the Guinness World Record for the largest hotel in the world, with a whopping 7,351 rooms.
If you’ve visited the Genting Highlands for its theme park and casino, then you would have most likely spent a night or two in the famous First World Hotel.
Behind its colourful facade, however, lies countless stories of hauntings by translucent figures and faceless apparitions.
Many have also claimed to hear children running along the corridors outside their rooms.
It is also said that the lift is programmed to completely bypass level 21, and that some rooms are so viciously haunted that they are never rented out at all.
Tat Tak School (Hong Kong)
Photo: Source unknown
This abandoned school is right at the top of National Geographic’s list of the top 10 most haunted places in Asia.
Located in the sleepy town of Ping Shan in Hong Kong, and surrounded by graveyards, it’s the perfect embodiment of the haunted school stories we heard in our younger days.
It’s so creepy that even local taxi drivers will not ferry passengers there. The most notable apparition frequently sighted is the ‘Red Lady’, who, according to legend, donned a red dress and committed suicide in one of the school’s bathroom.
There have also been reports of people getting possessed after encountering the Red Lady in and around the school.
It’s safe to say we’ll stay far away from this place on our next trip to Hong Kong.
Diplomat Hotel (Baguio City, Philippines)
Photo: Wikipedia
Located atop Dominican Hill in Philippines’ Baguio City lies the Diplomat Hotel, which once served as a hotel in the 1970s, and before that as a seminary in the first half of the 20th century.
This aged building is not without a dark past however - a large number of nuns and friars who resided in the lot were beheaded there by Japanese soldiers during World War II.
Today it sits abandoned, with paint peeling off its decaying walls. The site is closed to the public after nightfall, and for good reason.
There have been bloodcurdling sightings of headless ghosts in the hotel, who walk around carrying their heads on a platter.
Local residents who live nearby claim to hear strange noises from the building - crying babies, agonising wails, and even the sound of doors slamming. Which is creepy, since there are no doors in the Diplomat Hotel in present day.
Himuro Mansion (Tokyo, Japan)
Photo: Paranormala
This mansion was featured in the Tecmo’s hit 2001 video game Fatal Frame.
This is where fact blurs with fiction - it’s unclear whether this mansion truly exists, or if it’s just a figment of a game developer’s imagination.
With that said however, the urban legend that surrounds this supposedly haunted location is horrifying.
The story goes that the mansion sits upon a dangerous portal to Hell, which opens once every half a century.
The owners of the mansion dutifully carry out a grisly ‘strangling ritual’ every 50 years, in which a young girl is sacrificed and her blood is used to seal the portal.
Things went awfully wrong in the last recorded ritual, forcing the master of the house to brutally murder everyone in the house… including himself.
Their spirits are said to haunt the mansion to this very day, waiting for the next sacrificial lamb to step foot into the home.
The problem with this haunted site is that no one really knows exactly where it’s located either.
If you’re planning on exploring the forests outside of Tokyo, just be careful that you don’t stumble upon this ghost-ridden house.
Old Changi General Hospital (Singapore)
Photo: The Paranormal Guide
The Old Changi General Hospital in Singapore is infamously regarded as one of the most haunted locations in the world.
This building has served multiple purposes since its construction in 1935, first as a military barrack, then as a prison and torture chamber during World War II, and finally as a hospital in the 1950s - just imagine how many deaths this location has seen in the mere span of less than a century.
The hospital operated for decades, until it moved to new grounds a few kilometres away (also in Changi) in 1994.
Witnesses claim to have seen ghosts of Japanese soldiers and pontianaks (Malay vampires) in the old hospital.
The morgue in particular is a hotbed of paranormal activity, and many have claimed to have seen headless figures and floating apparitions in that area.
Blangarh Fort (Rajasthan, India)
Photo: Wikipedia
This sprawling, dilapidated 17th century fort is dubbed India’s most haunted location.
Legend has it that the fort was cursed by a lovelorn black magic tantrik, who condemned the people residing within it to death without karmic rebirth, and for the fort itself to be inhabitable.
The story goes that soon after the curse was laid, the fort was overrun by enemy forces and all within it perished.
More than four hundred years later, the fort still lays abandoned.
While the site is open for public visit during the day, local authorities have however banned visitors from staying in the premises after sunset.
We’re not sure why, but the locals believe that this is because adventurous souls who attempt to stay the night will be trapped there forever.
