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Modern Mysteries

What is China building in the desert ?

By T.K. Randall
November 15, 2011 · Comment icon 73 comments

Image Credit: Google Earth
Eagle-eyed Google Earth users have spotted strange constructions in the middle of the Chinese desert.
Satellite images seem to show vast sets of metallic stripes 3,000ft wide criss-crossing the ground in the middle of nowhere. Theories have been pouring in to try and explain what they could be for, including the idea that the pattern is used as a callibration system for spy satellites or that it is some other form of communication system intended to be viewed from orbit.

You can view the location on Google Maps - here.
It's located in Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Gansu, north of the Shule River, which crosses the Tibetan Plateau to the west into the Kumtag Desert. It covers an area approximately one mile long by more than 3,000 feet wide.


Source: Gizmodo | Comments (73)

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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #64 Posted by lightly 14 years ago
It's real (at least it's genuinely on google earth). I checked. hmmm , ok, .... very strange. Can't wait to hear an explanation!
Comment icon #65 Posted by SAmbag 14 years ago
hmmm , ok, .... very strange. Can't wait to hear an explanation! There are a few explanations in the thread. Most notably, these patterns are hypothesized to aid in satellite calibration.
Comment icon #66 Posted by 1963 14 years ago
hmmm , ok, .... very strange. Can't wait to hear an explanation! This explanation does it for me lightly!.... http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/mystery-structures-china-desert-spy-satellite-2184/ Cheers.
Comment icon #67 Posted by encouraged 14 years ago
If you go back to real early Google Earth maps of the area, where all of the lines ended, creek beds began. Now those creek beds are completely filled with whatever it is. My money is that is is merely a land fill (tip). Sand has blown onto the material, and is covering some of the stuff up. IMO the glowing bits are the roofs of staging areas.
Comment icon #68 Posted by Justinus 14 years ago
Wow the Chinese DMV aren't taking any chances..
Comment icon #69 Posted by encouraged 14 years ago
Today I saw a CNN report that had a huge number of white trash bags on the ground and it looks just like a couple of the Chinese screen shots of Google Earth I put in the UM Gallery.
Comment icon #70 Posted by Taun 14 years ago
Could this be part of the answer?... "China’s nuclear tunnels" The Chinese have called it their “Underground Great Wall” — a vast network of tunnels designed to hide their country’s increasingly sophisticated missile and nuclear arsenal. For the past three years, a small band of obsessively dedicated students at Georgetown University has called it something else: homework. Led by their hard-charging professor, a former top Pentagon official, they have translated hundreds of documents, combed through satellite imagery, obtained restricted Chinese military documents and waded through h... [More]
Comment icon #71 Posted by encouraged 14 years ago
A fair ways of, but I bet it does. Glad somebody is keeping an eye on them. Lots of 4 to 5 earthquakes in that region east-northeast of Urumgi.
Comment icon #72 Posted by lightly 14 years ago
This explanation does it for me lightly!.... http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/mystery-structures-china-desert-spy-satellite-2184/ Cheers. hmmm, works for me! cheers 1963
Comment icon #73 Posted by Yellow Jacket 14 years ago
Go to the sixth picture down in the article (huge complex, ten by five miles that looks like a bunch of swimming pools). Click on its google map pic. Now, zoom in to the twelve smaller rectangles (darker green) in the upper right quadrant of the area. There are many long chain looking things that attach to big black box-type things. It appears that they are using these to make the road patterns we see in [other of these] photos. I have no idea as to what they might be. Just, that it is very curious and weird. (You ever notice that "weird" violates the "I before E" rule? That is weird!)
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