Incident sparks viral online memes, as Chinese parents famously nickname their expensive children with this specific term
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenFran Luin BeijingPublished: 10:46am, 21 Aug 2026A five-year-old girl in northern China accidentally swallowed a 50-gram gold bar, sparking viral jokes online that she took the mainland nickname for children – “gold-devouring beasts” – far too literally.
The Beijing Children’s Hospital, affiliated with Capital Medicine University, reported the case that was treated on August 16.
The girl was brought to the hospital after accidentally swallowing a small gold bar measuring 4cm in length and weighing 50 grams six hours prior. An X-ray revealed that the gold bar remained lodged in her stomach.
According to the hospital, the girl was in a critical condition, as the gold bar was relatively hard and dense, with a smooth surface that could easily become stuck in the digestive tract. This could scratch the stomach lining and lead to severe complications such as perforation and significant bleeding.
The girl reportedly swallowed the gold bar while playing at home. Before heading to the hospital, her family visited several clinics, but none had the facilities for emergency endoscopic removal of foreign objects.
Doctors performed an intraoperative endoscopy and discovered that the gold bar was lodged in her gastric cavity, a space that offered extremely narrow operating conditions. A minor mistake could have resulted in damage to the digestive tract lining.
