Ahoy from Amoy (historic Xiamen, China)!
I've been interested in tales of UFOs since my time as a Special Agent of the Air Force OSI (AFOSI), which handled the Air Force's Project Bluebook (now declassified and available online). I'm convinced I did see a UFO once. I saw a bright light hover above a field perhaps half a mile away for half a minute, after which it shot straight up at a rapid speed and vanished. I can't imagine a weather balloon or the planet Venus doing that. But while about 700 of Project Bluebook UFO reports remain unexplained, most were easily explained, and many were outright fraud.
But I'm surprised at how many Chinese report seeing UFOs, and believe that ancient aliens visited China in UFOs. Lots of these stories, supposedly dating back centuries, are actually traceable to Western frauds like Erich von Daniken--farfetched tales like the Dopa Stones on the border of China and Tibet. There supposedly were hundreds of round, flat grooved discs that a Chinese deciphered to reveal the story of little aliens with big heads who had landed in China and were killed by the ignorant locals. Shades of E.T.! First--why would aliens with that kind of technology use stone disks? At the least, vinyl, like Pink Floyd used for their spacey compositions. Just Google Dopa Stones and you'll find several sites clearly refuting every aspect of them--though nothing is enough to deter True Believers--or True Frauds like Erich von Daniken, who wrote about them knowing the tales were false.
But, interestingly enough, ancient Chinese did write about unidentified flying objects--but that is not surprising because the ancient Chinese wrote about everything, and they watched the skies so closely for so long that NASA was able to use 3,200 year old Chinese observations to calculate how much the earth's rotation had slowed down! For the record, the earth now turns 47,1000 of a second slower than it did 3,200 years ago; so reset your watch.
But given that Chinese not only observed and wrote about everything but also invented everything, it may well have been some of the things the ancients saw were some strange flying invention. After all, 2,000 years ago they experimented with manned kites to spy on the enemy. It wasn't very safe, and the pilots of these kites were often people being punished: "Either lose your head on the ground, 100% or take your chances at going up and coming down alive. Up to you."
The ancient Chinese invented parachutes, hot air balloons (even today, on holidays they fill the air and look very alien as they glow and sputter--and sometimes move quite fast or erratically as they're buffeted by high winds).
So who knows if ancient Chinese UFO sightings were really extraterrestrial or actually from China (which to me is much like another planet in the first place; my masters was in Cross-Cultural Studies but I increasingly think Inter-planetary studies could have been just as appropriate).
One researcher claimed that over the centuries preceding 1918, Chinese had recorded over 700 UFO sightings. One was recorded in the Astronomical Record II, April 13, 905 AD.
One might suspect these night watchers had sipped too much rice wine or saki, but some of the men who reported UFOs 飞车 were outright geniuses--people like Shen Kuo 沈括 (1031-1095), who in his "Dream Pool Essays" 《夢溪筆談》 , "Strange Happenings," 《異事》, gave an amazing description of a UFO. Of course, the internet is full of supposed "ancient Chinese accounts of UFOs" but most of these are as fake as the Dopa Stones--they're not really in ancient Chinese records (of course, Marco Polo isn't in them either--which leads me to agree with Mark Twain--that he was never there, but just compiled his fanciful tales from stories told by jailmates).
Shen Kuo, however, was real, he did see a UFO, and he was a genius: Just look at his accomplishments and you'll see why his claim to have seen a UFO is not easily dismissed. Shen Kuo was a head of the astronomy bureau, he observed that climates change naturally over time and suggested techniques to avoid deforestation, he developed a pinhole camera (1000 years ago!), made raised-relief maps and two atlases, used predator insects for insect control, he determines that rainbows were light refracted through water droplets, he was an art critic, etc. His fields of study and research included: Geology, Astronomy, Archaeology, Mathematics, Pharmacology, Magnetics, Optics, Hydraulics, Metaphysics, Meteorology, Climatology, Geography, Cartography, Botany, Zoology, Architecture, Agriculture, Economics, Military strategy, Ethnography, Music and Divination.
So if Shen Kuo says he saw something, I believe him! He wrote that a bright object like a pearl hovered over the city of Yangzhou 扬州 , and that it's door opened and blinding light appeared from within, after which it shot into the lake. Ancient Chinese weather balloon? No idea, but I'd believe Shen Kuo before I believed Erich von Daniken.
Do I believe in UFOs? Well, if they exist, why haven't one of the billion people around the world with cell phones photographed one? And I mean a photo that was not clearly photoshopped (like recent Chinese reports of cities appearing in the sky; a fata morgana does not appear that high above the horizon, as far as I know).
Oh well, still fun to read about, though. I myself am quite certain that this universe is too large for just us, but I don't think aliens capable of crossing interstellar space would be playing games with us. They'd have the technology to either remain invisible altogether or to make their debut once and for all.
Enjoy Amoy!
Dr. Bill
School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"
www.amoymagic.com
Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com
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| Shen Kuo, 1031-1095, saw "pearl" UFO |
I've been interested in tales of UFOs since my time as a Special Agent of the Air Force OSI (AFOSI), which handled the Air Force's Project Bluebook (now declassified and available online). I'm convinced I did see a UFO once. I saw a bright light hover above a field perhaps half a mile away for half a minute, after which it shot straight up at a rapid speed and vanished. I can't imagine a weather balloon or the planet Venus doing that. But while about 700 of Project Bluebook UFO reports remain unexplained, most were easily explained, and many were outright fraud.
But I'm surprised at how many Chinese report seeing UFOs, and believe that ancient aliens visited China in UFOs. Lots of these stories, supposedly dating back centuries, are actually traceable to Western frauds like Erich von Daniken--farfetched tales like the Dopa Stones on the border of China and Tibet. There supposedly were hundreds of round, flat grooved discs that a Chinese deciphered to reveal the story of little aliens with big heads who had landed in China and were killed by the ignorant locals. Shades of E.T.! First--why would aliens with that kind of technology use stone disks? At the least, vinyl, like Pink Floyd used for their spacey compositions. Just Google Dopa Stones and you'll find several sites clearly refuting every aspect of them--though nothing is enough to deter True Believers--or True Frauds like Erich von Daniken, who wrote about them knowing the tales were false.
But, interestingly enough, ancient Chinese did write about unidentified flying objects--but that is not surprising because the ancient Chinese wrote about everything, and they watched the skies so closely for so long that NASA was able to use 3,200 year old Chinese observations to calculate how much the earth's rotation had slowed down! For the record, the earth now turns 47,1000 of a second slower than it did 3,200 years ago; so reset your watch.
But given that Chinese not only observed and wrote about everything but also invented everything, it may well have been some of the things the ancients saw were some strange flying invention. After all, 2,000 years ago they experimented with manned kites to spy on the enemy. It wasn't very safe, and the pilots of these kites were often people being punished: "Either lose your head on the ground, 100% or take your chances at going up and coming down alive. Up to you."
The ancient Chinese invented parachutes, hot air balloons (even today, on holidays they fill the air and look very alien as they glow and sputter--and sometimes move quite fast or erratically as they're buffeted by high winds).
So who knows if ancient Chinese UFO sightings were really extraterrestrial or actually from China (which to me is much like another planet in the first place; my masters was in Cross-Cultural Studies but I increasingly think Inter-planetary studies could have been just as appropriate).
One researcher claimed that over the centuries preceding 1918, Chinese had recorded over 700 UFO sightings. One was recorded in the Astronomical Record II, April 13, 905 AD.
One might suspect these night watchers had sipped too much rice wine or saki, but some of the men who reported UFOs 飞车 were outright geniuses--people like Shen Kuo 沈括 (1031-1095), who in his "Dream Pool Essays" 《夢溪筆談》 , "Strange Happenings," 《異事》, gave an amazing description of a UFO. Of course, the internet is full of supposed "ancient Chinese accounts of UFOs" but most of these are as fake as the Dopa Stones--they're not really in ancient Chinese records (of course, Marco Polo isn't in them either--which leads me to agree with Mark Twain--that he was never there, but just compiled his fanciful tales from stories told by jailmates).
 |
| Shen Kuo, 1031-1095, saw Yanghou "pearl" UFO |
Shen Kuo, however, was real, he did see a UFO, and he was a genius: Just look at his accomplishments and you'll see why his claim to have seen a UFO is not easily dismissed. Shen Kuo was a head of the astronomy bureau, he observed that climates change naturally over time and suggested techniques to avoid deforestation, he developed a pinhole camera (1000 years ago!), made raised-relief maps and two atlases, used predator insects for insect control, he determines that rainbows were light refracted through water droplets, he was an art critic, etc. His fields of study and research included: Geology, Astronomy, Archaeology, Mathematics, Pharmacology, Magnetics, Optics, Hydraulics, Metaphysics, Meteorology, Climatology, Geography, Cartography, Botany, Zoology, Architecture, Agriculture, Economics, Military strategy, Ethnography, Music and Divination.
So if Shen Kuo says he saw something, I believe him! He wrote that a bright object like a pearl hovered over the city of Yangzhou 扬州 , and that it's door opened and blinding light appeared from within, after which it shot into the lake. Ancient Chinese weather balloon? No idea, but I'd believe Shen Kuo before I believed Erich von Daniken.
Do I believe in UFOs? Well, if they exist, why haven't one of the billion people around the world with cell phones photographed one? And I mean a photo that was not clearly photoshopped (like recent Chinese reports of cities appearing in the sky; a fata morgana does not appear that high above the horizon, as far as I know).
Oh well, still fun to read about, though. I myself am quite certain that this universe is too large for just us, but I don't think aliens capable of crossing interstellar space would be playing games with us. They'd have the technology to either remain invisible altogether or to make their debut once and for all.
Enjoy Amoy!
Dr. Bill
School of Management, Xiamen University
School of Management, Xiamen UniversityAmazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"
www.amoymagic.comBill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com
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