
Ex-CIA analyst finds mysterious Chinese complex on Google Earth - antr
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-01/10/chinese-desert-mystery
======
JonnieCache
The best thing the chinese have got in their desert is a 1:20 model of a
section of the india-china border.

<http://www.gearthblog.com/images/images706/scalemodel.jpg>

[http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2006/07/huge_scale_m...](http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2006/07/huge_scale_mode.html)

They also have a deserted replica of a typical english town:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Town>

And they recently unveiled an exact replica of a real austrian town:
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18327751>

The rapid growth over there sure is producing some interesting things.

~~~
contingencies
Nice! Also, some obscenely rich guy in the east built a full-scale Whitehouse
as a personal residence. In the southwest, there is giant 'Optimus Prime'
Transformers statue advertising a car-yard.

China and America are pretty similar, all things told.

~~~
liquid_lazer
I need to see the Optimus Prime

~~~
contingencies
Looks like there's one in Beijing now too. The Kunming one was there for 10+
years, and used to be far higher than any building in the area.
[http://www.aeromental.net/2010/11/05/optimus-prime-statue-
in...](http://www.aeromental.net/2010/11/05/optimus-prime-statue-in-beijing-
china/)

------
jasonwatkinspdx
There's some interesting stuff near there. Close to the airport there's some
sort of campus with what looks like test tracks:

<https://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.548+N,+75.996+E>

The tracks look designed for either testing cars or teaching advanced driving
to police. There are T shaped concrete pads that are stained like people have
done millions of three point turns on them or something. The whole complex is
a bit odd.

~~~
fallwithme
This is a typical driving school. The curved tracks are not long enough to
train police or test cars. You can only drive through it very slowly. And you
can see there're parallel parking stains as well.

------
molmalo
There are a lot of spots that seems to be "censored" in Taklamakan Desert, to
the East.

Some of the spots are located at:

38.922210, 83.813098 <http://goo.gl/maps/3RSmB>

38.973006, 83.905259 <http://goo.gl/maps/Wlyfo>

38.987518, 83.84858 <http://goo.gl/maps/jicRC>

38.950323, 83.797617 <http://goo.gl/maps/DyykD>

but there's plenty of them. And there's a huge complex in the zone that looks
like missile silos. But why would leave those silos uncensored an censor
"something else"? (I don't know what)

~~~
smegel
Who do you suppose is doing the censoring and why?

~~~
molmalo
I don't know. Maybe Google or GeoEye, by request of the Chinese government.
Google has accepted before to censor some places by request of governments
around the world.

From wikipedia: "Censorship of maps is also applied by Google maps, where
certain areas are greyed out or areas are purposely left outdated with old
imagery." [1]

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartographic_censorship>

------
RockyMcNuts
Industrial park?

[http://ogleearth.com/2013/01/kashgars-mystery-complex-is-
not...](http://ogleearth.com/2013/01/kashgars-mystery-complex-is-not-complex-
and-not-a-
mystery/?utm_source=Sinocism+Newsletter&utm_campaign=6fe79faf0e-The_Sinocism_China_Newsletter_For_01_11_2013&utm_medium=email)

In this day and age, could probably find some folks from Kashgar on Weibo and
ask them. Not Twitter or Facebook, though.

------
ChuckMcM
I'm guessing its a 3XL sized WalMart store, when you consider the size the
market, its gotta take some serious foot traffic.

------
juiceandjuice
The buildings/structures out there are in interesting ratios. One of the U
buildings is ~64m on 3 sides. Another one is 125% bigger on the smaller size,
and then in a ratio of 1:2:1 per side.

A couple more buildings are about 108m, then there's more at about 86. Again,
the bigger one is 125% larger. The big building is about 144m on the left and
154m on the right. To the right of that, there's another complex that's about
133m to the right of that (125% of 108m) Maybe it's on the inside of the build
black building?

~~~
juiceandjuice
There seems to be a power substation here: 39.580234, 76.058357

And one large tower connecting it to a grid extending south here: 39.579052,
76.060278

------
dreamdu5t
Uhhh, why don't they build these underground or camouflage them at all? I find
it hard to believe sensitive compounds aren't camouflaged for satellite
imagery.

~~~
potatolicious
I'd imagine cost. Putting things underground takes a lot of time and costs
many times more than putting it above ground. If you need something in a hurry
and don't have infinite resources, you really don't want to be digging.

If this is indeed a secret Chinese facility I'd say it's done its job. We know
it's there but we haven't the faintest clue what it does. In the modern age of
spy satellites, hiding something completely is likely more expensive than ever
before, obfuscating it seems like a valid strategy now.

~~~
juan_juarez
Google Maps is just free public satellite imagery. You can barely make out
people (interestingly enough, I just realized most people are filtered out of
the images). The CIA's had birds for years that are good enough to read
license plates on moving cars. I'm sure that, if anything interesting is in
that desert, they knew what it was before it was even built.

~~~
biot

      > The CIA's had birds for years that are good enough to
      > read license plates on moving cars.
    

That's an urban myth, assuming that by "bird" you're referring to an orbiting
satellite and not terrestrial equipment like airplanes, quadcopters, and so
on:
[http://everything2.com/title/Spy+satellites+can%2527t+read+y...](http://everything2.com/title/Spy+satellites+can%2527t+read+your+license+plate)

~~~
wololo
the replies are interesting (image enhancement, dropping orbit, low angles,
synthetic aperture, deformable mirrors, etc.)

------
johnnymonster
Does anyone know the real location of these pictures? I tried the waypoint in
the picture, and it takes me to blurry mountains.

~~~
mnl
[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.580234,+76.058357&hl=e...](https://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.580234,+76.058357&hl=es&ll=39.58163,76.07101&spn=0.013379,0.01929&sll=39.528606,75.925741&sspn=0.047467,0.077162&t=h&z=16)

I'd vote for the abandoned brick factory, they were carving the hills
[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.580234,+76.058357&hl=e...](https://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.580234,+76.058357&hl=es&ll=39.584844,76.07569&spn=0.001672,0.002411&sll=39.528606,75.925741&sspn=0.047467,0.077162&t=h&z=19)
yet there are no bulldozers.

------
patrickdavey
Definitely like the replies to "Laura Shultz's" comment at the above link ;)

~~~
wilco0925
I came here to post the exact same thing. Those are some funny comments!

