British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking created an official account on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo on Tuesday morning, following other prominent global personalities including British Prime Minister David Cameron, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In his debut post, Hawking reminisced his two previous travels in China in 1985 and 2006 and expressed his wish to continually communicate with his fans.

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"Greetings to my friends in China! It has been too long! I last visited China in 2006... It was an extraordinary experience. My first trip was in 1985..."

Following his first post, which was written both in English and Chinese, Hawking received a warm welcome from the microblogging community. He easily gained nearly 400,000 followers and received over 60,000 comments in just two hours.

"I cannot believe it. This is a historical moment. I'm so close to the grand master!" a netizen said.

Some fans also took the chance to ask the renowned scientist questions including extra-terrestrials, gravitational waves and even random ones like "When will I get a girlfriend?" and "Are there aliens?" Others shared they have been reading Hawking's A Brief History of Time.

However, unlike other internationally renowned figures, Hawking seems to differ from others as the scientist has no diplomatic purpose or business intentions to accomplish, according to What's on Weibo.

Instead of establishing public relations for self-promotion, Hawking's purpose centers on sharing his life to people and engaging in intellectual conversation.

"I have only been able to touch the surface of your fascination history and culture. But now I can communicate with you through social media," he wrote. "I hope to tell you more about my life and work through this page and also to learn from you in reply."

Hawking's official account @史蒂芬·霍金_StephenHawking is collaboratively managed by the professor himself, a team of social marketers and LA-based media firm Stradella Road.

Tagschina, Sina Weibo, Stephen Hawking, Chinese social media, Twitter, Tim Cook, david cameron, Social network