A hiker had a bizarre encounter last week when a 'ghost' seemed to appear on top of a mountain.
The eerie figure appeared in the fog in the mountains of Sichuan province in China.
Video shows a 'ghost' wrapped in a halo of rays streaming through the clouds like a circular rainbow.
It looks as though the figure is waving with his left hand to the hiker from high above in the peaks.
But after some time, the man realises that his senses are playing a trick on his and that the faraway image is actually his own shadow.
The optical illusion is known as a 'brocken spectre' where the sun shines from behind somebody looking down into mist or fog.
In this case, the man's shadow is exposed on the water drops of the nebula, msn reported.
The phenomenon was first recorded in the Harz mountains of Germany in 1780.
It was named after Brocken peak where it was first observed by German pastor Johann Silberschlag, a natural scientist who often visited the mountains.
The term has since been used throughout literature including works by Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll who used it as an omen.
The phenomenon has also been regularly spotted in various places throughout Europe.
Last November, hiker Chris Randall saw a 'ghostly figure' walking alongside him in the hills of the Lake District.
He managed to grab his camera to record proof of what he had seen but later learned it was a brocken spectre.
The year prior, Thomas Swallow also experience the phenomenon in the Lake District.
He initially thought he had seen a ghost when he was climbing a mountain and saw a figure looming out of the clouds.
In 2018, Florian Clément observed a 'figure' while walking in France atop Europe’s tallest sand dune.
The photographer managed to capture the scene on the Dune of Pilat as the mysterious presence seemed to follow every step that Mr Clément took.
He later said the sighting was likely a brocken spectre.
