The Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, on Thursday responded for the first time to the rumours circulating about mysterious happenings: These mysterious cases are not real, Beijing Times reported.

For a long time, people have enjoyed talking about all kinds of mysterious cases happening in the Forbidden City, and some online horror stories are based on these cases. Taking the quiet and dark night of Forbidden City as a backdrop, the stories tend to take place in the areas not open to the public, especially the “haunted” west part of the Forbidden City. Involving the ancient buildings, the civet of darkness and lonely ghosts, these stories conjure a tense atmosphere for readers.

The Forbidden City on Thursday responded to these mysterious incidents for the first time: the so-called “mysterious cases” are not real. Coinciding with the opening of the west part of the Forbidden City, all such rumors will be countered.

According to experts of the Forbidden City, people who work there have never experienced any mysterious cases. The stories are completely factitious. Four new areas of the Forbidden City will be opened to the public on Oct 10 for the first time since the museum was founded 90 years ago. Visitors are welcome to explore these newly opened areas.