The Duxi Forest Farm "Aerial Strange Vehicle", Guiyang 1994

Duxi Forest Farm lies in Baiyun District, about 15 to 18 km north of Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province. Its Majiatang section was thick with Masson pine more than 20 metres tall. About 5 km away stood the Ministry of Railways' Guiyang Vehicle Factory at Dulaying. That night brought lightning, hail, light rain and violent squalls.

1 December 1994. Somewhere around three in the morning. Night watchmen at the forest farm and several nearby residents heard an enormous roar, like a steam locomotive.

Then came the light. Most witnesses described a huge ball of light, alternating bright red and green. Some saw two fireballs flying around each other in tandem. Others saw a golden disc, gleaming with colorful rays. It flew past from west to east. Two extremely strong yellow beams shot off to the north-east. Sound and light gradually receded until they disappeared.

At the factory, two duty police officers, Luo Weijun and Wang Jun, heard a huge noise behind them. Then a violent gust. They felt blown off the ground. A factory guard was blown into the air about 20 meters before falling. He was unhurt.

About 400 mu of pine, roughly 27 hectares, lay snapped at 1.5 to 2 metres in a band about 3 km long. The tops were basically dumped to the west. At the factory, fibreglass roof tiles had been sucked away and brick walls pushed over. A 50-ton railway wagon had moved about 20 m, reportedly uphill. Yet no people, livestock or poultry were hurt. High-voltage lines, phone lines and a greenhouse were untouched.

The Guizhou meteorological bureau found no tornado in its records, and no history of land tornadoes in the province. Its chief, Li Liangqi, noted that a very short event would be hard for the observing network to detect.

Hu Qiguo of the Guizhou UFO Research Association spent a month on site and interviewed several dozen witnesses. He reported "dragon-claw prints" on concrete, scorched circles and burnt bark, and later claimed that watches lost time on the prints. In early 1995, Sun Shili of the China UFO Research Association led an expert visit and argued against a tornado. Hu Qiguo's later claims, including an airliner reportedly pursued on its way to Guiyang on 9 February 1995, have never been independently confirmed.

Gao Dengyi of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Atmospheric Physics proposed a downburst or land tornado, pointing to twisted stumps. Ball lightning was considered and dismissed. Bill Chalker suggested an airburst related to an astronomical event, and That's Mags compared the case with Tunguska and Chelyabinsk. A psychologist had witnesses relive the event with their eyes closed. The longest recall took no longer than 20 seconds, against estimates of 5 to 30 minutes. The engineer Ma Ruian answered with a disc-shaped craft about 200 m across.

In 2005, CCTV's Approaching Science devoted a three-part programme to the case. It is counted among China's three great unsolved UFO cases, beside the Meng Zhaoguo encounter. In 2011, Liaowang Oriental Weekly found the stumps rotting or fallen beside a faded signboard.