DALIAN, Liaoning - It was a sunny spring weekend and Jin Fan decided it was a good time to go to the suburbs and peer at the sky.

Jin, 70, is a hardcore believer in UFOs, and has set up a special site with three other retirees to search the stars for evidence of alien life.

"This is a perfect place for observing the sky," Jin told China Daily. "It's located in a vast field, far away from the city. In the evening, if you stand on a higher place, it seems that the stars in the sky are within your reach."