Mysterious Structures Found In China's Desert On Google Earth

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Robin

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Google Earth has found bizarre patterns and structures in the Gobi Desert in China. Rumoured to be China's equivalent of Area 51 it seems to have calibration targets for spy satellites, accuracy test fields and other odd facilities. Some of the patterns are truly mind boggling like the 18 mile long grid pattern perfectly drawn on the terrain.

http://gizmodo.com/5859081/why-is-c...gantic-structures-in-the-middle-of-the-desert

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...tellite-targets.html?ITO=google_news_rss_feed

Thoughts?
 
Was checking this the other day, actually managed to find them on maps after a little while. Very interesting test grounds.
 
Very, very weird indeed...

I looked a bit closer on the pic with the Cyan airport on the 1st link. The cyan one was run-off and had white, worn-away spots. Three bright blue-roofed buildings lie just a couple of feet northeast of it, surrounded by also cyan-colored foam? All of them are partially destroyed.

EDIT:
The white grid thing 1st posted on the 1st link when looked further showed mass weathering, particularly at the northeast section. Each bar was around 60ft wide. Also at the south if you look really closely there is a faded road leading to one bar. There is also some bars probably trapped under the terrain at the northeast. If you look out to the way north, you'll see large paths that probably once had water on them, or wet mud or something like that. That could mean the fading at the top-right. The path did not extend all the way south though.
 
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I believe the second article posted claimed that its most likely use involved Chinese spy satellite recalibration. In other words, it's a ground tool that all Chinese spy satellites recognize in terms of length, width, and the patterns created inside it. By knowing its size at a given altitude, the satellite can calculate how much higher or lower it is every time it passes overhead.
 
Indeed, the burned out vehicles are interesting though, because I doubt they need them as fixed points on the ground. Unless they are testing satellite weapons, or at least satellite guided weapons.
 
They could use them for aerial/land practice as well, explaining a bit about the cyan runway. Perhaps target practice but it could mean something even more bizarre.
 
So... this is obviously (to me anyway, but I'm no expert) some type of weapons testing ground. I'll bet if you looked hard enough at the U.S. or just googled it, you'd find something similar, which raises a question: The U.S. can test weapons, but as soon as there is evidence of another country that is not an ally of USA testing weapons, should we go into mass hysteria over it?
 
You think the China have the guts to make an Ion Cannon and use it without America complaining.

Yea i think China don´t give a damn about USA to be honest.
USA is getting afraid because they won´t be the superpower that will run the globe.

If a war would break out between China and USA i can garantuee you it will be USA´s fault.
By putting troops around like that you do nothing but provoking a country.

We have also seen how excellent USA is at warfare against developing countries... NOT.
 
hampus_dh
Yea i think China don´t give a damn about USA to be honest.
USA is getting afraid because they won´t be the superpower that will run the globe.

If a war would break out between China and USA i can garantuee you it will be USA´s fault.
By putting troops around like that you do nothing but provoking a country.

We have also seen how excellent USA is at warfare against developing countries... NOT.

+1
I never thought I would ever say this but I actually agree with you. :D
 
This isn't the first time the Chinese have done something like this. There's an isolated region called Aksai Chin - on the far side of Tibet, hard up against Jammu and Kashmir, where a 1:500 scale model of the surrounding terrain has been built. It was first spotted in 2006, though local authorities say it was built between 1998 and 1999, and it serves as a proving ground for tanks.
 
I can see this going very quickly off piste and descending into some non sensical rants about anti-US shiz.

Personally I think they're calibration patterns but I do like the scaled down recreation of the India-China border that they built.

EDIT: Tree'd. Damn phone!
 
And I thought that blackish blue cloud looking thing over Area 51 was wierd...
 
Anyone checked out Kangbashi yet?

staticmap


Holy mother of unused infrastructure! Thirty thousand citizens located in Inner Mongolia, for a city planned for one million inhabitants, all from nothing in the past 7-8 years.
 
Anyone checked out Kangbashi yet?

staticmap


Holy mother of unused infrastructure! Thirty thousand citizens located in Inner Mongolia, for a city planned for one million inhabitants, all from nothing in the past 7-8 years.

Amazing, that architecture is just amazing.

I guess that the government over there worries about the potential of some geographical locations, just like the USSR back at communist days (I know is not China, but it looks like Chinese infrastructure, not architecture it must be said).
 
Holy mother of unused infrastructure! Thirty thousand citizens located in Inner Mongolia, for a city planned for one million inhabitants, all from nothing in the past 7-8 years.
It appears the Chinese tried to kickstart growth by predicting the direction that a nearby city would grow ... and they got it wrong. The same thing happened in my hometown - the local council tried to anticipate the growth of the town and pushed for growth to the south, only to find that the town went west.
 
The story goes that coal-mining suddenly became big in that area around 2000 or so, thus the need to house the workers and the...coal miner's daughters?
 
Wow it is China, I also cant believe that there is racetrack nearby to east. I also wonder about those blue rooftops, those are sort of predominant in China.
 
Wow it is China, I also cant believe that there is racetrack nearby to east.

That's how I found this...although the wide, empty streets make a good case for running an event on a temporary circuit.
 
Apparently there are unused structures all over China - sometimes whole newly constructed cities - simply sitting empty and unused. This supposedly reflects the extreme misallocation of funds by the centralized (Communist) government.

Respectfully,
Steve
 
Dotini
Apparently there are unused structures all over China - sometimes whole newly constructed cities - simply sitting empty and unused. This supposedly reflects the extreme misallocation of funds by the centralized (Communist) government.

Respectfully,
Steve

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

The most worrying thing I think if China is making military advances is if they decide to trade their information, which feels inevitable. If any terrorist organisation got any advanced equipment from them then I'm guessing that wouldn't be good.
 
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