Taiwan's X-files

Calls to organizations monitoring UFO sightings are expected to rise over the coming weeks as the planet Mars passes close to the Earth. On June 23 the red planet will be closer to the Earth than at anytime in the past two years. And at a mere 67,578,000km away, the planet's polar ice caps will be visible to anyone with even a relatively cheap telescope.

As the planet draws closer to Earth it will appear in the sky as a bright red light hovering on the horizon. And it is this phenomenon that astronomers believe will be mistaken for unidentified flying objects by UFO spotters around the world.

The Taiwan Unidentified Flying Objects Association (TUFOA, 台灣飛碟學研究會), received the first call related to this planetary bypass two weeks ago. A man in southern Taiwan called the society's headquarters in Taipei and excitedly explained how while toying around with his new digital camera he had taken a picture of an object hovering above the treetops near his house. He was convinced it was a UFO.

The truth is out there

Formed in 1993, TUFOA is the only organization in Taiwan researching and cataloging UFO sightings. Ho and his associates receive an average of 10 calls a year, of which two or three warrant further investigation by the organization's chief investigator, Ho Hsien-jung (何顯榮).

Whilst Ho's recent trip south proved a dead end -- the photo had been of Mars -- Ho says there is ample photographic evidence of UFO activity in Taiwan. Ho, along with Fox Mulder of the X-Files and a host of people around the world, is convinced that "the truth is out there."

According to Ho there have been 15 recorded sightings where photographic evidence suggests that extraterrestrial objects have traversed the skies above Taiwan.

The earliest of these pictures was taken in Taitung City (台東市) in 1961.

Wang Shi-lin (王石麟) was out walking one day when an object on the horizon caught his eye. There is very little detail in the black and white photo, which appears to show a bright flat object hovering above the ground. Ho is convinced the photo is of a UFO.

Other photographic "evidence" ranges from the patently absurd to the almost believable.

One of the most striking UFO shots was taken at an interchange on the Sun Yat-sen freeway. Li Chun-hsiung (李俊宏) captured a fireball hurtling through the sky on Dec. 8, 1999, while caught in a traffic jam at the Yangmei interchange (楊梅交流道). Ho studied this particular case in some depth. After interviewing several eyewitnesses, the organization firmly believes the image to be the glow of the afterburner belonging to an alien spaceship leaving the Earth's atmosphere.

In the history of the ROC, one of the earliest photographs of a UFO is one taken back in 1911 in the Chinese city of Tienjin (天津市) by a Japanese photographer. But there is no shortage of shots of UFO activity in the skies above Taiwan.

One shot, taken by Tsai Chang-hung (蔡章鴻) in Yuanshan Park (圓山公園), adjacent to Taipei's Grand Hotel, shows an oval object hovering in the sky. Although dark and hazy, Ho accords it credibility as Tsai is a relative of Tsai Chang-hsien (蔡章獻), former head of the Taipei City Observatory.

"This photograph is the most famous photo of a UFO in Taiwan. Thousands of people have seen it and many of them believe that it is a UFO. After all Tsai Chang-hung was related to one of the nation's leading scholars, Tsai Chang-hsien.