Meng describes the extraterrestrials he says he met - he had a second encounter with others after he met the female - as speaking Chinese.

"The aliens showed me a piece of crystal, through which I saw forests, icebergs and fossil fuels on the Earth," he says. "They told me about the current situation facing Earth's resources and warned me about the importance of environmental protection."

But that's not all they told him, he says.

"They said that 60 years from then, there will be an alien born with the genes of an earthling farmer, and I can meet him or her," he says, referring to the offspring he says he sired with the extraterrestrial female.

While many within China's ufology community are skeptical of abduction reports such as Meng's, International Chinese UFO Association sighting investigation department head Zhang Jingping believes people should remain open-minded.

"We have invented aircraft, and we have landed on the moon. Why is it impossible that aliens are visiting us?" says the 42-year-old. Zhang has led research on Meng's case, including arranging for police to administer a lie detector test, which he says Meng passed.

Wang says China has about 60 researchers and 10 NGOs involved in serious UFO studies. The country's ufology community was put on the map in 2005, when Liaoning province's Dalian city was selected as the World UFO Conference site.

American nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman, who worked on classified government projects for 14 years and is perhaps the world's most celebrated ufologist, told China Daily at the conference that, "ufology is blossoming in China".

He has since been "impressed" by the serious discussions in the country's press, he says.

"China's space program is moving rapidly, and so is its serious discussion of UFOs," he says.

"I am indeed optimistic that Chinese researchers will be making more contributions to our knowledge of this very important phenomenon - visits to Planet Earth by intelligently controlled alien spacecraft."

Be they unexplained natural phenomenon or the cruisers of universe-trotting ETs - or something else entirely - UFOs are unlikely to stop appearing over China anytime soon.

And when they do appear, there will be a growing number of Chinese with their eyes on the skies.