The ChillX Zone

Two Citizen Recordings and the Sounds Nobody Can Explain

December 4, 2025

January 2020 — two independent citizen journalists in Wuhan began recording scenes from the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak. One, Fang Bin, filmed bodies in hospital corridors. The other, Zhang Zhan, documented empty streets and blocked access points during lockdown. Their video clips circulated online for limited times before being removed, mirrored, and reposted by different users.

The imagery has been discussed and archived. The background sound in those recordings has not been widely examined.

Observational Characteristics

Across multiple mirrored uploads, listeners noted recurring background sounds:

• low-frequency humming
• intermittent metallic tapping
• audio dropouts unrelated to camera movement
• pulsing noise under ambient city sound

These are publicly audible in some versions of the recordings, though the original files have not been made available for technical analysis.

Locations

The footage was recorded in accessible, street-level areas:

• hospital entrance corridors
• service alleys near residential buildings
• exterior stairwells
• delivery loading areas
• building ventilation paths

None of the available recordings were made inside laboratory buildings or restricted medical facilities.

Verifiable Source Material

Portions of these recordings remain online, typically as compressed copies:

• handheld phone video posted by Fang Bin beginning January 25, 2020
• smartphone footage uploaded by Zhang Zhan in February 2020
• mirrored copies saved by users after original posts were removed

Some files exist only in screen-recorded format, meaning original audio quality has been altered.

A Noted Audio Detail

In one clip attributed to Fang Bin, a voice off camera in Mandarin states:
“Listen, it’s coming from the vents.”

This line is audible in a mirrored version with an on-screen timestamp. There is no public identification of the speaker and no official transcript has included this phrase.

Missing Original Audio Files

Several original uploads became unavailable over time due to:

• platform deletions
• removal of source accounts
• confiscation of devices
• lack of systematic archiving

Because first-generation recordings are missing, source characteristics and metadata cannot be fully verified.

Limits of Interpretation

There are no published forensic reports analyzing these audio tracks. No official investigation has addressed:

• the source of low-frequency pulses
• mechanical tapping sounds
• unexplained audio dropouts
• inconsistent sound profiles across reposted clips

Available information allows observation but not definitive conclusions.

Unanswered Questions

Unresolved aspects of the documented audio include:

• whether ambient sounds came from infrastructure devices
• why different versions of the same clip contain different audio levels
• how compression removed or altered certain frequencies
• whether any original, uncompressed audio files exist in private archives

These remain factual unknowns within the scope of publicly available recordings.

Reporter’s Note

The videos are real. The background sounds are present in some versions and absent in others. Without first-generation files, audio analysis cannot proceed beyond observation.

If original recordings become available, new data may clarify whether the sound artifacts were environmental, technological, or incidental.