British physicist Stephen Hawking has opened an account on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo, amassing more than 2 million followers within 24 hours.

Netizens, including those who are baffled by Hawking's scientific theories, expressed their admiration for him.

In his first blog post, at 10:12 am on Tuesday, Hawking, 74, reminisced about his trips to China and welcomed communication with Chinese people through social media. Within hours, the greeting had been forwarded more than 190,000 times and had generated more than 180,000 comments.