‘Magic Pool’ Drawing Thousands in China

PEKING — Up to 10,000 people a day are flocking to a “magic pool” in east China’s Anhui province in the hope of miracle cures, an official newspaper said.

Crowds of “possessed” believers let off firecrackers and burn candles around the small pond in Tianchang County before drinking the water, the Shanghai Evening News reported.

The paper attacked the cult as a backward superstition and said the pilgrims were drinking filthy water.

The pilgrimages have been going on for more than a month and were started by a story that a person who bathed his inflamed eyes in the pool was cured, the daily said, adding that the story was “without foundation.”