CHINESE UFOLOGY REVEALED

The 2005 "World UFO Conference" held in Dalian, a thriving and modern port city in north east China, provided me with a good opportunity to witness various manifestations of Chinese ufology. While the conference was interesting and entertaining for a whole lot of reasons, mixed in with themes of "lost in translation", I was drawn to the event to help further develop my understanding of UFO research activity in China. That objective was largely achieved outside of the formal conference activities when I was able to do a number of interviews with key researchers and identities, with the help of very helpful volunteer university student interpreters, particularly Sadie and Marina. They helped me in my interviews with Professor Sun Shili (one of the most recognised spokesmen for Chinese UFO research), Zhang Jingping (an active and energetic Beijing based UFO researcher), Professor Ling Huan Ma (a very helpful Beijing based "UFO learner"), and Professor Chen Gongfu (principal researcher of the Meng Zhao Guo case, regarded as China's most famous alien abduction case).

My research and enquiries in China during September 2005 allowed me to cover many aspects of the Chinese UFO experience, including:
* the development of modern ufology in China
* the Meng Zhao Guo case
* the strange abduction "healing" experience of Cao Gong - Zhang Jingping and his associate Harvey Zhao enable me to interview Mr. Cao in Beijing
* other experiences including an abduction involving two young Chinese "super psychics" and an engineer
* a possible UFO photo from Dalian during the conference (a prosaic explanation for this I suspect)

My visit to China and all the new Chinese friends I made certainly enriched my understanding of the Chinese UFO research scene and my apreciation of Chinese culture and history. My enjoyment of the culture and history was also wonderfully assisted by my guides and interpreters in Beijing and Xi'an - Irene and Cici.

A UFO sighting in central China? - Flying out of Xi'an during the early evening of September 13th on an Air China flight bound for Beijing afforded me a puzzling aerial sighting which I photographed. I'm still not sure if what I saw was an unusual cloud or a more interesting anomaly. I err to the former possibility but what seemed a rather sharp angular elongated rectangular "object" had me intrigued and glued to the plane porthole for about 10 minutes.

(Photos: Sun Shili and Bill Chalker at the Dalian UFO conference; the official opening to the conference held at a Dalian shopping complex conference venue. Images copyright: Bill Chalker)

Footnote: I had intended to access my web log while in China to post a series of commentaries, but found that I could not access my blog site or a number of other blog sites from 3 different locations - Beijing, Dalian and Xi'an - it seemed like some sites, such as blogs, were not accessible inside China?