China's Bigfoot Still Remains A Mystery

In 1967 a local man from China's ShaanxiProvince was lifting stones in the hills surrounding his village when he uncovered footprints, 16 inches (40 centimeter) in length. One after the other of the prints appeared walking down the rocks into the valley, the imprints buried into the stone. There was no doubt, to Qaio and his neighbors that these footprints belonged to a man, and with those measurements, a man who would reach almost 10 feet (3 meters) tall.

Today the mystery has sparked an intensive debate over who or what made the imprints and more importantly how much energy and resources should be invested to uncover the mystery? Legions of a Chinese Bigfoot have been around for centuries. Today the creature are still believed to roam the forests, named by the locals as the Yeren, or Wild Humans. In the Hubei Province massive footprints have been uncovered, yet in size they are around three quarters of the size of the ones in the Shaanxi Province.

In 2009 scientists were considering mounting a major search of the Hubei Province with the view to uncovering either the creature themselves or more evidence of their existence. The ground for their work was based on a 1980's expedition after 18 tourists reported witnessing to half animal, half human creatures believed to be the Yeren. In 2003 another sighting took place but these witness accounts are rare events. That's lead to another scientific theory that these footprints are ancient. Some believe that in fact the prints were made by some creature that dates back to the dinosaurs.

Now the question remains should research money be poured into tracking down creatures that may not have been alive for millions of years?