They live among us:
We unearth the truth on China’s resident aliens…

Supercilious people sometimes describe Ufology as the science of the religion-starved. Unkind doubters even say it’s the science of the common sense-starved. But here in China at least, they’re in a mean-spirited minority.

Rates of reported UFO sightings across the country show no sign of slowing: An orange V-shaped UFO with a long tail in Nanjing; another resembling a brass bowl hovering in Kunming’s blue skies; red sparks shooting out from a mysterious cloud in Beijing, and numerous classic fireballs are just a few examples.

The oft-quoted Zhang Yifang, professor of physics at Yunnan University and Director of the Kunming UFO Research Association, recently claimed aliens are alive and well and living in Yunnan, Heilongjiang and Xinjiang. “The complicated terrain of these places makes them perfect for observation of us earthlings,” he says. “But I believe they are nice and they have no intention of attacking us. Perhaps they are shape-shifters camouflaged as human beings or they have manufactured human-like robots to watch us.”

As if that wasn’t spooky enough, scientists at Nanjing’s Purple Mountain Observatory say that during last summer’s eclipse, they filmed an unidentified flying object near the sun for a full 40 minutes. As observatory director Ji Haisheng says, it will take months of footage analysis before the team can reach a conclusion, but still!

Lou Jinhong, Director of the Shanghai UFO Research Center, is Shanghai’s No. 1 UFO expert. He served in the PLA’s No. 9 Aviation School in the 1970s, studied aircraft and later went on to work at the Shanghai Aircraft Research Institute. In short, he knows his flying objects, identified or otherwise.

“UFOs are not just rumors, or fake science like some people think,” he told That’s Shanghai. “It is a fact that the entire human race has to face. It needs our attention and study. Although the majority of mainstream scientists have a negative attitude towards UFOs at the moment, there are still some who recognize their existence. Since the late 1970s, UFO witness cases have started to appear frequently, and more and more scientists are starting to study it too, for example, Pan Junye, an academic at the China Engineering Academy, Zhu Jin from Beijing Observatory, and Wang Sichao from the Nanjing Observatory.”

Lou acknowledges that 95 percent of reported UFO sightings are just hoaxes or misunderstandings, as witnesses often mistake Venus or Jupiter for more mysterious heavenly bodies.

All the same, Lou is convinced that his own sighting was no mistake. “On September 26, 1971, I was serving in the PLA’s No.9 Aviation School, and my troop was located in a small valley in the suburb of Laohekou, Hubei. After dinner, we walked to the park to watch an open-air film. I can still remember, it was a colored film from North Korea called Flower Girl. The sky was very beautiful and clear, dotted with many stars. I looked up in the sky by chance and suddenly saw a spiral-shaped object slowly flying across the sky. It was twice as big as a full moon and the speed was similar to an airplane. We were all from the aviation school, so we had learned aircraft principles, discussed aircraft stories and seen many real aircraft. But no one had ever seen anything like this. Back then, no one had any idea what a UFO was, but we all definitely eliminated the possibility of it being any kind of manmade object. Since then, a giant question mark has been stamped in my head.”

Lou argues that it’s only rational to assume Earth is not the only special planet. The conditions necessary for developing life aren’t so extreme, so we shouldn’t be the only sons of the universe, he says.

“If I really had the chance to meet aliens, especially humanoids with intelligence, I would treat them like my own friends and family, welcome them with enthusiasm and attention, and chat with them so we would learn from each other. I believe if they can travel to our planet, it means their politics, economy, technology and culture must be more advanced than ours. So through communication, it will have an immeasurable impact on the development of us human beings.”

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