A hiker captured a glowing halo around his shadow on a sacred mountain in China.

Footage shows the curved rainbow-coloured glows that silhouetted the shape of the tourist's head shadow atop 10,167ft-high Mount Emei - which is one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains - in Sichuan province on January 14.

The halo appeared when the sightseer had reached the foggy peak and recorded the unusual optical illusion.

Local superstitions say that it was the Buddha's light shining upon the hiker, and the others a few hours before him who reported the same experience.

However, it was actually an atmospheric phenomenon often described as a halo around the observer's shadow due to sunlight, or rarely moonlight, interacting with tiny water droplets in mist or clouds.