Why Is China Building These Gigantic Structures In the Middle of the Desert?

[Triple Zero]

http://gizmodo.com/5859081/why-is-china-building-these-gigantic-structures-in-the-middle-of-the-desert

[Faust]

Those patterns are not designed "to be seen from orbit",
The rectangular ones at least have been etched, from orbit.  

[The Wizard Joseph]

Some of the other images really do look like a targeting grid of some sort as suggested in the articles.  Looking closely at the google maps of the image shown here has me even more weirded out.  It does not look like they bothered to level the terrain in any way before they placed.. whatever this is.

The lines are also strangely uniform in some places and seem to have degraded in others.  Maybe we're looking at the results of a test and not an apparatus here.  The comments mention a similarity to the layout of some streets in D.C., but looking at it I'm certain that it's not similar enough at all to be significant. 

Neat find Trip! 

[Faust]

Oh, and the more uniform looking one has a perfect square just west of it.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.458148,93.393145&hl=en&ll=40.458018,93.392587&spn=0.0208,0.040426&sll=40.475028,90.849724&sspn=0.087881,0.161705&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=15

It's been cleared for something, a quarry perhaps?

I really don't like this, there are no roads leading up to the shapes.

[The Wizard Joseph]

I see what you mean Faust.

Not to get all  but it looks like this may perhaps be a series of burn marks.  The source would have come straight down.  When I look at the topography it seems that the narrow spots are frequent around hills and rare on flatter areas.  How could they get enough energy to produce a burn like this from a satellite?  It would have to be generated from the ground and perhaps reflected from orbit.. but it's so precise.  I would think that energy entering that strongly from orbit would cause atmospheric disturbance.  All this is just guesses of course.


That cleared, perfect square to the east gives me the chills.  There are no visible buildings or structures, but it looks like there's a line of some sort irregularly traced through the middle.  It branches into smaller lines in some spots, but goes nowhere.  One of the branches ends in an irregular splotch like a pencil pushed around in a circle on paper.  Again speculation, but these could be tests of control and focus for a beam directed in real time.

[The Wizard Joseph]

I take back the "No buildings" bit.  North of the square there appear to be structures in full zoom.  4 of them, clearly man made. and a few further north all with north/south orientation.  No sign of where the material from the square might have gone though.  There are no piles of gravel and no rail stations I can see.

[Don Coyote]

Look east. More stuff cut into the desert. And what appears to be several highly reflective objects.

[The Wizard Joseph]

Those appear to be airstrips to the east.. that's the configuration for them anyway, but THEY'RE HUGE.  The one to the east looks blue and reflective.  I have never seen anything like this outside of Nazca line scale weirdness.  I also zoomed out all the way and it would seem that the whole project is in a VERY secure place strategically.  Middle of China with no worries unless Russia stepped in.. and that's not likely. That is if when China were manages to control the Pacific theater.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

Check out this huge shiny blue thing, maybe 200 miles west of the square thing.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.458148,93.393145&hl=en&ll=40.43153,90.817108&spn=0.173001,0.363579&sll=40.475028,90.849724&sspn=0.087881,0.161705&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=12

The thing must be 5 miles wide and 10 miles long.  At least it has a road going by it.

[The Wizard Joseph]

Check out this huge shiny blue thing, maybe 200 miles west of the square thing.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.458148,93.393145&hl=en&ll=40.43153,90.817108&spn=0.173001,0.363579&sll=40.475028,90.849724&sspn=0.087881,0.161705&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=12

The thing must be 5 miles wide and 10 miles long.  At least it has a road going by it.

I could be mistaken, but I think that's an agricultural or industrial center of some sort.

[Juana]

Do you really think that if it was anything significant, t would be on Google maps? Given how much Google has worked with China in the past, I doubt it's anything serious, tbh.

Cool though.

[Cain]

Here's something no-one has considered: it's an anti-desertification project.  China's pumping millions into Gansu province for exactly that purpose.  Plots for growing plants, irrigation channels...

Second possibility: archeological excavations.  Duhuang is part of the historical Northern Silk Road, some of the temples and ruins along that route are simply amazing.  Plus, Gansu province is looking to expand its tourism industry, and that historical factor is one of its main attractions.

[Faust]

If it was excavations I would have expected more protective stuff around but that would account for the grid structure.
You're probably right with the antidesertification, there are large manmade bodies of water in that region.

But that is nowhere near as cool as a satellite laser

[The Wizard Joseph]

THIS!

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Oh, and the more uniform looking one has a perfect square just west of it.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.458148,93.393145&hl=en&ll=40.458018,93.392587&spn=0.0208,0.040426&sll=40.475028,90.849724&sspn=0.087881,0.161705&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=15

It's been cleared for something, a quarry perhaps?

I really don't like this, there are no roads leading up to the shapes.

One interesting thing that I noticed when I zoomed out a bit on this one is that the square is about a kilometer for each line, the long bits of the rectangle are about a mile.