In July 2010 a UFO sighting over Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport in China proved to be so intense that it forced the facility to temporarily close down. While the incident received a lot of online exposure, it is just one of many UFO sightings dating back as far as recorded Chinese history. We have written before, for example, of the mysteries of the Yellow Emperor, Huang-Di. The entire history of this enigmatic culture, however, is littered with strange appearances from above.

Before we look at the more recent sightings, in particularly over China’s airports, an encounter in the Himalayas in 1927 is perhaps worth looking at. If only to demonstrate the longevity and consistency of such crafts over this part of the world. According to the travel diaries of explorer, Nicholas Roerich, on 5th August, while camping in the Kukunor district, at a little after 9 am, several of the team noticed a “huge black eagle” soaring above them in the morning sky. As they marveled at the wondrous sight, one of the explorers exclaimed, “There is something far above the bird”. As the other members of the unit focused where he pointed, they all could see a huge oval, shining from reflecting the sun as it moved at “great speed”.

While one explanation that it was a weather balloon was considered, no records of such a launch were ever produced to back up the claim. Furthermore, had another team been in the area, Roerich’s unit would have been aware of them. Further still, the speed with which the shining, distinctly oval shape moved would suggest something more in line with modern aviation as opposed to the still limited early planes of the 1920s.

Permission To Land Denied!

Shortly after 8:40 pm on 7th July 2010, the flight crew of a commercial airliner went through their procedures and requested permission to land. However, traffic controllers at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport would deny their request. No outbound traffic would leave the airport, and any incoming flights would be diverted to nearby airports in Wuxi or Ningbo. According to their reports, they were so concerned with a “UFO buzzing the airport” that they feared a collision and effectively put the airport into lockdown.

In total, eighteen planes were forced to change their landing destination. Although the interruption would last only an hour, Chinese media, and in turn, the wider online community, entered into rampant speculation as to what the strange craft was? And why its presence caused such an extreme, albeit sensible reaction.

While many Internet users claimed the craft to be of extraterrestrial origin, others would speculate that it was actually a “US bomber” or even a “US missile”. Some people reasoned it was a Russian satellite. Many other people theorized the strange craft was a top-secret Chinese military vehicle.

The incident took an intriguing twist, however, when residents of Hangzhou uploaded multiple pictures of a strange “hovering object bathed in golden light”. Most of these pictures were taken in the late afternoon, several hours before the airport closure. It is a safe bet that this golden craft is the same that forced the airport closure several hours later. Many others, although they didn’t have pictures, claimed they had witnessed a strange flying object “emitting red and white rays of light” only hours previously. One resident, Ma Shijun, would describe a “bright white light flying across the sky” and feeling “a beam of light over my head”.

Military Tests?

The Chinese Aviation Authorities would treat the incident seriously and sent a team to investigate. A small team of five researchers also arrived in Hangzhou shortly after the encounter from the Beijing UFO Research Society. Most UFO researchers still consider the sighting unexplained, despite the apparent admission of it being a “military test”.

A similar incident occurred on 6th October later that same year in Inner Mongolia. Once again, the airport would lockdown all its aircraft and divert any incoming traffic. And once again, this was due to a “military exercise”. While it is not beyond the realm of possibility that these sightings were exactly what the authorities said they were, there was something about the admission that doesn’t sit well with many researchers. You can view a short news segment of the 2010 sighting below.

Five years later, on 29th August 2015, another airport closure due to a UFO occurred. Furthermore, what starts as a round spherical object appears to morph into a distinct cigar-shaped craft. There is a military presence throughout the sighting, although there is no purposeful action or response visible. Some who were skeptical of the footage claimed it was nothing more than a balloon.

The short video below features a news piece on the incident.

More And More Sightings In The 2000s

There have been several intriguing UFO sightings over China in the 2000s. On 31st May 2004, for example, in Guangzhou city in Guangdong Province, at 11 pm, five separate people witnessed a strange white-yellow object overhead. The group was leaving a restaurant and immediately saw the strange object as they stepped outside on to the street. Two of the group were amateur astronomers and quickly confirmed this was certainly something out of the ordinary.

They all noticed how the object had a “blurred” quality to it. Despite it hovering “right above” their heads, it appeared to purposely take itself out of focus. The more the group of friends stared at the light, they could see it had a distinct round shape to it. They could also make out a “dark axis” running through the craft. It remained overhead for around thirty minutes before it vanished into suddenly appearing cloud.

Several years later on 18th June 2007, reports of a “jellyfish-shaped” UFO came from Shanghai. Several different witnesses came forward. The sighting happened a little after 8 pm and was visible for some time before fading away into the sky. Perhaps what was seen was similar to the video footage captured in late-2010. The exact location is uncertain, but it certainly has a wormhole appearance to it, which many people believe it was.

You can check out the short video of the 2010 sighting below.

Ring-Like Objects Increasingly Appearing In The Skies

On 2nd November 2017 in the small village of Shaoyang in the Jiangxi Province of China, footage emerged online of a circular orange cloud-like UFO hovering in the sky. A very definite outer edge is visible in the footage, which took place in the middle of a sunny afternoon. Visibility, in general, was very good and the sighting instantly sparked debate as to what it was.

The sighting was witnessed by multiple people and was visible for around ten minutes before it quickly disappeared. What’s more, it isn’t the first time that such cloud-like rings have appeared in the Chinese skies.

On 12th August 2017, with hundreds of sunbathers on Jinshitan Beach in Dalian in the Liaoning Province, a dark, black “smoke-ring” appeared overhead. It remained visible for several minutes before disappearing. Interestingly or not, these smoke-rings have been appearing in various places all over the world. There are sightings on record in England, America, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Argentina. Many believe these are the remains of mysterious portals. Gateways that allow unknown entities, and their crafts, access to our domain.

Whether the orange circular ring shares a connection to these black rings is up for debate. It most definitely appears to be a phenomenon that requires further investigation, however. You can view the November 2017 footage below.

The Zhangpo Open-Air Cinema Sighting

On 7th July 1977, during a screening of ‘Alert On The Danube Delta” at an open-air cinema, several members of the audience noticed two “oblate orange objects” passing overhead. It was shortly after 8:30 pm. Although it was a relatively warm evening, intense heat could be felt by the cinema-goers below. A low humming sound also filled the air. However, that is when things turned severe.

The thousands of people in attendance suddenly panicked. Some would throw themselves to the ground as if expecting an imminent attack. Others would run towards the exits around the sides of the area. While this was happening, and unbeknown to most below, the UFOs ascended and vanished. They were visible for only seconds. When the scene had calmed, though, over 200 people were injured. Even more tragic, two children would lose their lives in the crush.

Despite the multiple witnesses, and the horrific response the sighting evoked, Chinese authorities initially suspected some kind of “optical stunt” by the cinema. They would insist on studying the film and the building. They examined all aspects of the footage and failed to find any evidence to back up their claims. The sighting remains unexplained.

A similar, although less-deadly, incident occurred on 23rd October 1978 at Lintiao Air Base in the Gansu Province. During an open-air film-showing attended by several-hundred Chinese soldiers and personnel, a “huge peculiar object” came into view overhead. As it moved, two “searchlights” searched the immediate vicinity to its front and rear. Although the object wasn’t particularly fast, by the time two fighter jets had been dispatched to intercept the mysterious craft, it was no longer in sight. The many witnesses, all trained in aviation, would state the craft was something “other-worldly” and not a military vehicle.

The Tai Yu County Incident

Perhaps one of the strangest cases of UFOs involving the Chinese military occurred in late-1977 in the Fujian Province. One evening, a huge UFO entered Chinese airspace from the direction of Taiwan. It would proceed to land on a hill in the Tai Yu County. Several farmers and local workers witnessed the fantastic event. As did the military, who had 300 soldiers on the scene within minutes. They would surround the hill and await orders to close in.

Believing the object to be a “secret weapon that the US is providing (to) Taiwan”, the unit would attempt to capture it. Covering all the radius around the strange craft, the soldiers began to move in closer. A “look-out” who had gone ahead would report that the object was beginning to glow brighter. The closer the unit came to the object, the brighter it glowed. In fact, it became so bright, that some soldiers would shield their eyes, or look away altogether. Others began to feel extremely dizzy and nauseous.

Just as the leader of the unit was about to issue a command to open fire and then retreat, a sound like “howling wind” split the night air. A metallic rattling also began, like a huge industrial engine. All the while, the brightness continued to increase. So much so that no soldier maintained their stare for even a second. Because of this, it is not clear if the object vanished into thin air or rose and disappeared into the night sky.

Although the sighting was relatively well-known inside China at the time, the Chinese authorities would take painstaking measures to ensure the incident didn’t become known to the western world. Something they succeeded with for many years.

Encounters Sent To UFO Researcher, Brian Vike

A sighting from sometime in the 1990s over the Fujing Provence would have no less than forty-three people witness it. The incident was sent to Canadian UFO researcher, Brian Vike, several years later. A group of athletic students, along with their coach, witnessed what they at first thought was a satellite. It had a dark color and a shape like a tin can. However, it made no noise whatsoever, and as it moved closer, all realized it was something a little more exceptional than a satellite. It continued overhead silently, before vanishing out of sight. All agreed it was a craft of some kind unknown to them.

The main witness who supplied the report to Vike also told of an encounter she had when she was only 6-years-old, in 1989. While staying with her Grandma, both would see a “human-like creature”, smaller than an adult, inside their room. Although it would leave the room after only several seconds, the witnesses’ grandmother was so frightened that she daren’t switch on the light until morning lit up the room.

The encountering of strange, other-worldly creatures in China isn’t limited to this sighting in the late-eighties. Another earlier sighting stands out more than others. And although there are no claims of abduction, the following case has many of the signs of such an incident.

Disappearing Disc? Or Abduction Incident?

This even more disturbing encounter took place a decade earlier on 18th December 1979 in Lan Xi Chekiang Province. As a truck driver continued on his route at 4 am in the early hours of the morning, he suddenly hit the breaks due to a car sitting right in the middle of the road. The 25-year-old jumped out of the truck to see if the occupants of the car had injuries. Instead, the driver of the parked car would state he had seen “something strange” on the road ahead.

The truck driver stepped back into his truck and proceeded cautiously down the road, which sloped upwards to the top of a small hill. Once there a blue glow bathed his truck cabin, emitting from a silver disc hovering close to the road’s surface slightly ahead. Next to the craft were two humanoid figures. Each stood approximately five-feet tall, and each adorned “silvery clothing”. On their heads, they appeared to have a light which glowed brightly, like a miner’s helmet.

He quickly searched in the truck’s cabin for a defensive weapon. However, when he turned back to the sight, the humanoids and the craft were gone. It is not clear whether there was any “missing time” during the encounter. It may well be that the visitors didn’t merely vanish. Although it is purely speculation, it may be that the witness simply doesn’t recall what happened following his reaching into the truck’s cabin. Given that it would likely be impossible to identify the person nearly four decades on, the sighting will likely remain a mystery.

More Sightings From China’s Distant Past

Sightings of strange aerial craft have happened in China for thousands of years. At some time during the 1070s, for example, while on his way to take a government post, Su Shi (also named Su Dongpo) would witness a strange craft emerging from the Yangtze River while touring the Jinshan Temple in Zhenijang City. He would record the incident in a poem, writing how “The middle of the river appears as if engulfed in flames”. So intense was this light that it “shines upon the mountains, startling birds at rest”. He writes how he can’t think what the cause of this strange light is. He does state, though, that it is “not ghost (and) not human”.

During the Ming Dynasty, on the evening of 3rd December 1577, a flying object that “spun like a wheel” was seen in the skies over the Guangdong Province. The strange craft lit up everything around it for a considerable distance. It remained overhead for close to two hours before moving off into the distance.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing of China’s UFO sightings occurred in 1523 in the small village of Yugioh. A teacher, Lu Yu, stood outside his home while a heavy rainfall lashed all around. Suddenly, he noticed what appeared to be two “ships” coming out of the clouds above him. On these ships stood several tall humanoids, each wearing multicolored clothing.

The teacher would call out to the “ten well-read men” who were inside the small home. They immediately came outside and also witnessed the bizarre events as they unfolded. The two ships then proceeded to land nearby. The humanoids “then passed their hands over the mounts of the well-read scribes who could not speak anymore”. When the ships left, the ten men regained their power to speak.