« Battleship Google Earth | Main | Israel-Lebanon Conflict Illustrated in Google Earth »

July 20, 2006

Huge Scale Model of Disputed Border Region of China Found in Google Earth

Huge Scale Model of Mountain area in China in Google EarthThis is one of the most interesting finds in Google Earth in quite some time. A few weeks ago a first time poster, called KenGrok, at the Google Earth Community (GEC) discovered a very exact scale model of some mountainous region located in the middle of a desolate area in north central China. Seen in Google Earth the huge scale model is .9 km tall by .7 km wide. It is adjacent to what looks like a military base with many camouflaged vehicles. Last week, the same poster found the location the scale model represents - a region occupied by China but claimed by India near north central India. If you turn on the "Borders" layer in GE you will see they are colored red to indicate the dispute. Another GEC member showed how exact the scale model is by taking a screen shot of the satellite photo of the scale model and overlaying it over the real terrain (turn the image overlay on and off to see how exact it is). This scale model was most likely created for military reasons. Someone posted a description of why a military terrain visualization is critical for military purposes.

In the same thread above, several other interesting locations were found close to the scale model:

Posted by FrankTaylor at July 20, 2006 06:26 AM

  • Google Earth Blog © 2005, 2006, 2007 Copyright by Frank Taylor. All Rights Reserved.
  • All image screenshots from Google Earth are Copyright by Google


  • Comments

    If you hoover around that Chinese "military" area you will see large numbers carved on top of the mountains. Any idea what those might be?

    Posted by: Hugo at July 21, 2006 01:33 PM

    If I'm not wrong, scale of the model is, aproximately, 1:500

    Posted by: Marc B. at July 21, 2006 06:17 PM

    i think the numbers in chinese military area are some type of code . i think if we join the numbers 1-2-3..etc.. we get chinese alphabet (not sure). it may also be codes for fighter pilots who can see from above.

    Posted by: zain at October 1, 2006 04:10 AM

    Those letters say: Ski Slope

    Posted by: kag at November 16, 2006 06:14 PM

    These Chinese people think by doing all this they will be well equipped/ trained to fight India!!!...ha!!..
    The world politics should see this and take notice of this. What they are doing is not at all Justified.

    Posted by: groovy at March 2, 2007 05:23 AM

    my concern is if china goes to war with india they might trash our economy to make sure we can't do anything on either side, especially since they own something like 90% of our national debt. Facto in the new missile sub and all the other purchases. I don't expect it next month, but sometime in the next quarter century china will do something big and stupid that will see a return to massive nationstates slugging it out and its either gonna be us and china or china and india.

    Posted by: eric at July 10, 2007 01:16 AM

    Maybe its some sort of controlled environment and they're doing experiments and on people. Who knows, it could even be a rel life "Lost".

    Posted by: Red Rasta at October 3, 2007 07:20 AM

    Post a comment:

    NOTE: Please use English. Comments are moderated.




    Remember Me?




    Sponsored Ad: