Hey there, blimpy boy

A couple of weeks ago, Shanghai was beset by rumours of UFO sightings. According to a story in the Shanghai Daily:

... a man named Hu told the Xinmin Evening News he saw the UFO in the sky near the Outer Ring Road in Xinzhuan area at 4:30pm. It was visible for about 5 minutes, Hu said.

A man named Luo said he saw a bright oval object flying west towards Jiuting Town at 5pm when he was near Qibao Town. He tried to take a picture of it with his digital camera, but failed.

A man named Yang said he saw the UFO near the Laoximen in Jianguo Road E. at 4:44pm. He said it was a thumb-like orange oblong object hanging in the southeast sky and moving slowly east ...

Shanghaiist has a theory that maybe what so many people were looking at and getting excited about was, in fact, just your run-of-the-mill blimp.

We suggest this because while we were in Super Brand Mall last night for the opening of a brace of new restaurants on the shopping centre’s 6th floor -- for the record, Golden Elephant Thai and Mythical China -- we spotted this zeppelin (pictured) swooping up and down above the Huangpu.

Note how the brightly lit aircraft possesses the typical cigar shape of many UFOs. We feel that this could well have been a factor in leading people to jump to their alien-related conclusions. It certainly sounds like the “bright oval object” mentioned by Mr Luo, above.

Indeed, the only thing that might have cast doubt in the minds of sky-gazers was if they read the enormous Chinese characters plastered on the side of the blimp, advertising the 10th anniversary of the Shanghai Yao Han Department Store. Doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that Martians would have at the top of their list of messages to impart to the human race.

Still, we stand by our theory. The Shanghai UFO = the Huangpu Blimp.

In other UFO news, China’s largest publication dealing with unidentified flying objects, The Journal of UFO Research (飞碟探索), is set to become a monthly from January 2006. Who knows, perhaps the truth will be revealed -- once and for all -- about Shanghai’s recent “visitor” ...

Pretty decent Thai food at that Golden Elephant by the way.