Chinese black helicopters circle Google Earth

The Register ^ | Wednesday 19th July 2006 | Lester Haines

[Dog Gone]

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 (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/484568/page/vc) by the Google Earth Community:

Zooming in for a closer look, we have what appears to be a 900x700m scale model of a mountainous landscape...

...complete with lakes, valleys and snow-capped peaks:

Truly bizarre. Google Earth aficionados can examine the evidence for themselves here (http://regmedia.co.uk/2006/07/19/huangyangtan.kmz) (.kmz) while wondering what on Earth, or where on Earth for that matter, this remarkable landscaping project is.

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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 (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/510687/page/vc/vc/1) enterprising Google Earth Community member who correctly identified the model as representing this (http://regmedia.co.uk/2006/07/19/aksayqin_hu.kmz) disputed area on the Chinese/Indian border.

Here's a comparison of the Chinese model and the Google Earth image of the region in question...

...while a closer look reveals the meticulous attention to detail:

It's clear that a huge amount of time and resources has been invested in this perplexing scale model, which incidentally represents an area of around 450 by 350 kilometers. The big question is: why?

The only sensible explanation we can come up with is that it's a training aid for pilots - possibly helicopter jockeys - designed to familiarise them with the landscape should military action ever be required.

No doubt you lot can come up with some better suggestions, but while you ponder this mystery keep one eye open for the black helicopters of Huangyangtan. ®

[Dog Gone]

Google Earth is awesome.

And this Chinese facility is bizarre. It's not for helicopter training. I think that was an attempt to be funny.

But why did they build it?

[Cinnamon]

It's training tool for armed forces. works very well with visual learners. this is one huge country

[Porterville]

Slave labor is amazing... You should see what the Chinese can do with stolen body parts from young women and children... now that is incredible...

The Chinese prince class is evil.

[JennysCool]

But why did they build it?

For some reason, the plot of the recent Oceans 11 remake comes to mind.

[patton]

But why not just use google earth as the training aide? We do...

[nmh]

Perhaps it's me but I don't see anything but undeveloped terrain.

[BobL]

Perhaps they want to get the 3d views using helicopter models.

But the scale still doesn't work.

[Dog Gone]

Trust me, it's you.

[ErnBatavia]

Google Earth is awesome.

It really is...I just installed it two weeks ago, now that I'm on broadband; still have a bit to learn about it, tho...

[Seamoth]

Look at the first picture. They're talking about a mountain range the size of a building.

IMO, it's not a "real" scale model but some kind of fake picture or graphic designed to cover up a sensitive military base.

[muawiyah]

And GoogleEarth.com, doing the bidding of their slave masters in Peiping have dutifully replaced the ACTUAL PHOTO of that area with a FAKE PHOTO worked up by the Chicoms.

Wonder who else GoogleEarth.com works for and how much they get paid.

[Seamoth]

well, while I hate that Google is cooperating with the Chicoms on the censorship, these satellite images clearly come from a public database of some sort (I know Google's rich but I doubt they have a satellite taking all those pictures). In that case, all China has to do is feed bad pictures to the database and refuse to supply real pictures to it, and I'm sure they have some kind of technology to fool satellites on their end too. I doubt Google is to blame here.

[Dog Gone]

It is a real scale model. There's no denying that.

It's from the border of Kashmir and China. If you have Google Earth, you could go check for yourself using the links in this story. The "mountains" at this site are only about 4 feet high at most, but it's no photo.

[Incorrigible]

Interesting

[BobL]

Maybe, but why so obvious and making it stand out? That only invites our real satellites to take a peak.

Unless they are testing our capability to discover the change.

But even with that, how would they know when we (i.e., military) actually discover it?

Disregard above question, they probably found a Democrat working at NSA.

[nmh]

Look at the first picture. They're talking about a mountain range the size of a building.

IMO, it's not a "real" scale model but some kind of fake picture or graphic designed to cover up a sensitive military base.

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In the first picture I see a base or some buildings but the other close ups look like typical mountain ranges.

[nmh]

Look at the first picture. They're talking about a mountain range the size of a building.

IMO, it's not a "real" scale model but some kind of fake picture or graphic designed to cover up a sensitive military base.

---

In the first picture I see a base or some buildings but the other close ups look like typical mountain ranges.

Much to do about nothing ... .

[Dog Gone]

That's about the most bizarre conspiracy theory I've ever heard.

Why wouldn't they replace the actual photo with one like the surrounding empty landscape?

[muawiyah]

Because they made a mistake. The Chicoms are not, as it were, perfect~

[GeronL]

They help China catch dissidents too and absolutely refuse to help the US look for terrorists online.

patriotic huh?

[cyberdasher]

It's a giant putt-putt golf facility, without the fake blue water.

[Dog Gone]

In the first picture I see a base or some buildings but the other close ups look like typical mountain ranges.

Much to do about nothing ... .

Your failure to grasp what you're seeing is rather amazing.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

How about to train desk jockey pilots to remote pilot planes/helos?

[RFC_Gal]

How does google "refuse to help the US look for terrorists online."?

[jiggyboy]

An earlier post with some speculation &c.

[Dog Gone]

I'd say it's a scale model to walk through with Chinese generals to prepare for a potential renewal of the conflict with India over this disputed territory. They don't want to lead forces into a dead end valley.

[Dog Gone]

I wouldn't have posted this if I had found that on my search before posting. I wonder what I did wrong.

[jiggyboy]

Not ragging you, quite the opposite -- this is one worth seeing twice. There was a wide range of possibilities in the other thread.

In fact, I didn't see it either via the "quick" search for "any of" chinese black google, but the "archive" search popped it up.

[GeronL]

I remember reading here on FR that they said they would refuse to help the US government "spy" on their users to look for "terrorists".

Meanwhile both Google and Microsoft actually do help China lock up dissidents.

[Eccl 10:2]

Olympics-related?

[jiggyboy]

Search bug? This doesn't come up via the "quick search" for "any of the words" chinese black google. The first page of results ended with articles every day from today back to 7/23 and the second page of results started with articles from 7/11. The previous posting of the article was on 7/20.

[Chode]

now THAT's what i call a sandtable...

[GSlob]

Well, operating helicopters at higher elevations is rather tricky - what is the operation ceiling for the military helicopters available to the Chinese? Kashmiri mountains might be too high a ground for them.

[Dumpster Baby]

Not to worry, they're just planning the layout of a new amusement park - Six Flags Over Nothing.

[Semper911]

I wouldn't have posted this if...

If you hadn't posted it, I would have missed it. So thanks.

The search function on FR is hit or miss.

[Dog Gone]

I re-did my search and now it comes up for me. Maybe just viewing the older thread brought it out of archives.

I really don't have an explanation, because it wasn't there before. I looked at all results going back until well before the publication date of this article.

The moderators don't get mad unless a duplicate article is posted within a few hours of the prior one, so I'm not too worried about that. But something is not quite working right with the search function. Both times I used only one search word, "Chinese".

Weird.

[billndin]

Someone, probably Chicoms, is covering up the real landscape with the image from the Chinese/Indian border for some reason. The notion that this is some kind of manmade landscape is dumb. Unless this misplaced image is some kind of human error, I find it hard to avoid the conclusion that someone at Google is working with the Chicoms. But why would they bother? Military/US government satellite spying technology is likely to be equal or better than what we can see on Google Earth. I do question Google's loyalty. If you were able to poll Google employees' voting records, you'd probably find over 95% are secular progressive poo-poo(Moonbat)Democrats who have little or no love for America.

[WoofDog123]

i have very often had that sort of non-find of a keyword that later worked when searching for some time now. whatever the cause, FR search has always been buggy.

[docbnj]

It's a preparation for a possible invasion.

[Jeff Head]

Anywhere near three gorges?

[RFC_Gal]

So does Yahoo, Cisco and a host of other US high tech companies.

[nmh]

"Your failure to grasp what you're seeing is rather amazing."

No. I'm just not paranoid in need for a conspiracy.

As I stated ... much to do about nothing.

I've got better things to do with my time than imagine conspiracies and being paranoid about mountain ranges. China has a right to have military installations as clearly seen in the first photo. The others are wonderful pictures of mountain ranges. Imagine away ...!

[nmh]

Careful Dog Gone ... those black helicopters may be out to get YOU!

[Dog Gone]

Anywhere near three gorges?

No. Way far away to the east.

[Dog Gone]

nmh, the photos your're seeing are a scale model of a huge section of land on the Chinese/Kashmir border.

It's been recreated in an area of about 160 acres. And it's real.

The photos you think are of mountain ranges are closeups of that 40 acres. I'm guessing you don't have Google Earth installed.

[Jeff Head]

Interesting. I will take it to a Chinese military forum I frequent.

[A knight without armor]

Maybe this is a fake cover up for something underneath.

[Beaker]

*ping*

[Zeroisanumber]

[uglybiker]

Uhh...they've just hatched a baby Godzilla and they're training him to lay waste huge swaths of land controlled by capitalist pigs! Yeah! Dat's da ticket!

But he's still a very young Godzilla ...only 6 foot tall... so they've scaled down the training aids accordingly.