Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The things you can find on Google Earth

I don't have a lot of time for looking for oddities from space via Google Earth, but apparently they are some folks that do and look what they found in China:
Those among you who like your skies darkened by black helicopters are invited to mosey on down to the remote Chinese village of Huangyangtan which hosts what must be the strangest military installation ever spotted by the Google Earth Community.
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Zooming in for a closer look, we have what appears to be a 900x700m (about 3000 x 2300 feet - ed.) scale model of a mountainous landscape complete with lakes, valleys and snow-capped peaks
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Don't, however, spend the next three days scouring the world's mountain ranges trying to find a geographical match: the legwork has already been done for you by this enterprising Google Earth Community member who correctly identified the model as representing this disputed area on the Chinese/Indian border.
Click through for the pictures and theories about why the Chicoms would go to all the trouble to build this. It may really be a pilot training aid, but my theory is they're building a really big model train layout for Jung Il Kim.