Ex-CIA analyst finds mysterious Chinese complex on Google Earth

[Bredirish123]

[QUOTE=stupid07er;39168920]Dog farms[/QUOTE]

For some unknown reason I read that as "Dong Farms" :v:

[shian]

[QUOTE=RobbL;39169625]I was looking on google earth and found a load of these weird moated structures in a large area of the gobi desert, anyone have any idea what they are?

I found this complex too (it has a small football pitch for whatever reason)

[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/dHkG1.jpg[/thumb]

[/QUOTE]
Could be a political prison camp.

Then again, why would there be a football field in a political prison camp.

Probably gonna train those to become olympians

[mac338]

[QUOTE=RobbL;39169625]I was looking on google earth and found a load of these weird moated structures in a large area of the gobi desert, anyone have any idea what they are?

[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/qwOUS.jpg[/thumb][/QUOTE]

Alien vagoo

[h4ngman]

[QUOTE=proch;39169522]
His name is buck and he likes to [sp]look for knives in ancient Chinese complexes... or make you do it, whatever.[/sp][/QUOTE]

I kind of liked him, I didn't really want to [sp]kill him[/sp] in the end of his quest line. Just another crazy character on the Island. What made us so goddamn righteous and good. He puts his dick into people. Big whoop, loosely justified by the death of our brothers, we massacre thousands who had nothing to do with is whatsoever, we're in no place to judge, but that's what Brodi does best, eh? Killing people.

Oh, that chinese thing is probably nothing

[Corn]

Weather balloon factory

[DrLuckyLuke]

[QUOTE=RobbL;39169625]I was looking on google earth and found a load of these weird moated structures in a large area of the gobi desert, anyone have any idea what they are?

[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/qwOUS.jpg[/thumb]
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the circle, I wouldn't have found it otherwise!

Oh wait

[Keys]

[QUOTE=WhiskeyTangoF;39169341]On a related note, can someone tell me what the fuck this is? I found it on Google Earth in the middle of the Gobi Desert.

[IMG]http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/orig/1/913485895-orig.jpg[/IMG]

Coordinates: 40°25'42.98" N 90°49'52.12" E

And some of the Panoramio pictures from Google Earth:

[IMG]http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/orig/1/913513357-orig.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/orig/1/913520430-orig.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]

I can't remember the name of them exactly. But they are reservoirs to store water used for irrigation and desalination. We have a TON of them out here in the U.S. around Salt Lake City. Only difference is the SLC ones are a variety of color thanks to microorganisms introduced to the salt water pools to try and clean and desalinate them (remove the salt so its drinkable/useable)

As for the Chinese facility. I'd put my money on weapons research.

[b]edit:[/b]

Though looking at the last image with the nuclear stack and red/white ringed exhaust stack I would say it could also be a reservoir pool to keep the nuclear reactor cool. There's no easy "pool" (for lack of a better term) of water to draw from so in order to keep the rods cool they would have had to have built a storage facility for the water. In the desert though? That shit would evaporate quick, so that would have to be HELLA expensive to keep flowing. Constantly flying/driving in massive amounts of water that is..

[HellSoldier]

military training stations

[Elfy]

If china wanted to hide it, I'm sure as hell they wouldn't allow Google to have it.

[Decoy Ocelot]

Just because there is a cooling tower doesn't necessarily mean there is a nuclear reactor.

[Mauzer]

[QUOTE=RobbL;39169625]
[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/qwOUS.jpg[/thumb]
[/QUOTE] That to me look's like an underground base or something.

Note: The triangles in each corner, possibly missile/AA/ground defense battery's.

That, and the huge man-made moat going right around it and only one point of egress and the mountainous center, defend-able structure or what...

[sp]...or am i letting my imagination run away with me?[/sp]

[Phygon]

[QUOTE=Elfy;39171282]If china wanted to hide it, I'm sure as hell they wouldn't allow Google to have it.[/QUOTE]

You can't exactly stop satellite images from being taken. The best they could have done was ask google to censor it after it was found, which they might do if it's important

[Splarg]

[QUOTE=Decoy Ocelot;39171628]Just because there is a cooling tower doesn't necessarily mean there is a nuclear reactor.[/QUOTE]

Thank you, people automatically make this connection even though tons of other plants use them.

[RobbL]

[QUOTE=madmax678;39171685]That to me look's like an underground base or something.

Note: The triangles in each corner, possibly missile/AA/ground defense battery's.

That, and the huge man-made moat going right around it and only one point of egress and the mountainous center, defend-able structure or what...

[sp]...or am i letting my imagination run away with me?[/sp][/QUOTE]

My first thought was some sort of surface mining thing, but I dunno

[editline]10th January 2013[/editline]

Also, nearby I found nuclear warhead launch facility

[IMG]http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/30137932.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/4422320.jpg[/IMG]

[Jsm]

[QUOTE=Elfy;39171282]If china wanted to hide it, I'm sure as hell they wouldn't allow Google to have it.[/QUOTE]

Funnily enough the Chinese government do not control Google.

[seefo]

[QUOTE=WhiskeyTangoF;39169341]On a related note, can someone tell me what the fuck this is? I found it on Google Earth in the middle of the Gobi Desert.

[IMG]http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/orig/1/913485895-orig.jpg[/IMG]

Coordinates: 40°25'42.98" N 90°49'52.12" E
[/QUOTE]
That is a potassium chloride factory. Another image of it can be found at [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lop_Nur[/url]

[Lick]

someone tell him to go on streetview lol

[Blind_Guy]

Oh shit not my XCOM base!!! Damn satellites used against me!

[yawmwen]

so that's where they house all the ancient chinese secrets...

[Vintage Thatguy]

meth labs

[SirDrone]

[QUOTE=mac338;39169844]Alien vagoo[/QUOTE]

I'm sorry I thought you meant Alien who-flew

[E Quantifier]

Probably just a new factory. Any local villages anywhere?

[Lord of Ears]

[QUOTE=madmax678;39171685]That to me look's like an underground base or something.

Note: The triangles in each corner, possibly missile/AA/ground defense battery's.

That, and the huge man-made moat going right around it and only one point of egress and the mountainous center, defend-able structure or what...

[sp]...or am i letting my imagination run away with me?[/sp][/QUOTE]

well, those are definitely AA installations in the corners

[Tyanet]

[QUOTE=WhiskeyTangoF;39169341]On a related note, can someone tell me what the fuck this is? I found it on Google Earth in the middle of the Gobi Desert.

[IMG]http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/orig/1/913485895-orig.jpg[/IMG]

Coordinates: 40°25'42.98" N 90°49'52.12" E

And some of the Panoramio pictures from Google Earth:

[IMG]http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/orig/1/913513357-orig.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/orig/1/913520430-orig.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]

That thing ended up being a huge fertilizer plant.

[editline]11th January 2013[/editline]

[QUOTE=RobbL;39169625]I was looking on google earth and found a load of these weird moated structures in a large area of the gobi desert, anyone have any idea what they are?

[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/qwOUS.jpg[/thumb]

I found this complex too (it has a small football pitch for whatever reason)

[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/dHkG1.jpg[/thumb]

It has roads leading off it that go to smaller complexes like these (note what appears to look like helicopters)

[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/UzdnU.jpg[/thumb][/QUOTE]

Can you post the coordinates for these? I want to look at it myself.

[Mauzer]

[QUOTE=RobbL;39172064]My first thought was some sort of surface mining thing, but I dunno
[/QUOTE]With a moat around it?

[Elfy]

[QUOTE=Jsm;39172129]Funnily enough the Chinese government do not control Google.[/QUOTE]

I'm pretty sure one of the largest governments in the world can get them removed or blurred. I know of places that are blurred, such as Navy bases and stuff. Google wouldn't keep them up and put themselves at risk.

[RobbL]

[QUOTE=tyanet;39179599]
Can you post the coordinates for these? I want to look at it myself.[/QUOTE]

[B]41°43'30.01" N 100°27'41.78" E
[/B] One of the moat structures, zoom out a bit and there's quite a few others to the northeast

[B]41°04'50.81" N 100°30'28.66" E[/B]
The unknown complex, follow the road leading east off it to find the numerous smaller complexes

[B]40°57'56.09" N 100°17'23.50" E[/B]
The "China Juiquan Satellite Launch Center"

[B]42°00'49.36" N 100°54'47.60" E[/B]
And also some industrial complex with tracks/pipes leading off it in all directions

All the things are in the same area, there's loads more stuff around there I haven't mentioned
If anyone finds out anything to do these sites i've posted, mind posting here about it?

[PassTheBong]

Lol apparently [url=http://ogleearth.com/2013/01/kashgars-mystery-complex-is-not-complex-and-not-a-mystery/]OP's finding was just a shopping centre[/url]

[quote]I had no trouble finding the location, and immediately surmised it is just another huge industrial park being constructed, one of many propelling China’s development at breakneck speed. Here’s what a little context can tell you:

1) In May 2010, Kashgar was selected as a special economic zone by the Chinese government, which means that, just like Shenzhen and other places before it, it is in for a wild ride on a scale not often seen outside China. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t anything massive being built in Kashgar right now. Kashgar’s economy is growing at around 15-20% per year, and it is perfectly placed for cross-border trade with the central Asian republics.

2) The complex in question is conveniently being built just to the northeast of the very modern Kashgar airport, very close to a reservoir which I drove by on an excursion to nearby ruins (also marked on the map). The railway from Urumuqi to Kashgar veers into Kashgar just south of the reservoir, and would be perfectly positioned for an offshoot into the industrial zone. This complex is not at the far edge of some small desert town; it is located on prime real estate near transportation hubs in a rapidly expanding trading and manufacturing center that was once a major waypoint on the Silk Road. It would be the absolutely worst place to build a secret base.

3) Anybody with a visa for China can fly, drive or train it to Kashgar. There are no restrictions to travelers into the region, unlike in Tibet. In fact, landing at the airport, I had a wonderful view of the slopes on which this complex is now being built. Fly into Kashgar on one of many daily scheduled flights and you’d know right away how work is progressing.

In sum, I was disappointed. Not with the Chinese for failing to construct a mystery complex, but with the gullible reporter, who should at the very least have gotten a second opinion before letting loose on the Internet a retired analyst with an overactive imagination and no on-the-ground knowledge of the area. I left a comment to that effect.

That, of course, did not nip this meme in the bud. My RSS reader started filling up with rewrites, soon enough including from mainstream news outlets such as Salon, Australia’s Telegraph and even Sweden’s Nyheter24. The rewrite-industrial complex was going gangbusters. All that was missing was the Huffington Post version.

This story thus reveals more about us than about China. It is above all a story about technology racing ahead of our ability to put it into context. We are overawed by the notion that we can observe any place on Earth in high resolution, but we lack the tools to understand this power and the limits of this power. Into this cognitive vacuum we pile on conspiracy theories. Any absence of information suddenly requires a cover-up. Comments to the original Danger Room article betray an amazing appetite for conspiratorial beliefs that are incompatible with even a passing knowledge of how satellite imagery is collected.

And the story also reveals how many in the West continue to see China as an oriental mystery opaque to westerners, fair game for wild conjecture. But it’s not. Those days are long gone. Here be no more dragons. China is knowable. Just not from Google Earth alone.[/quote]

[RobbL]

[QUOTE=RobbL;39182307][B]41°43'30.01" N 100°27'41.78" E
[/B] One of the moat structures, zoom out a bit and there's quite a few others to the northeast

[B]41°04'50.81" N 100°30'28.66" E[/B]
The unknown complex, follow the road leading east off it to find the numerous smaller complexes

[B]40°57'56.09" N 100°17'23.50" E[/B]
The "China Juiquan Satellite Launch Center"

[B]42°00'49.36" N 100°54'47.60" E[/B]
And also some industrial complex with tracks/pipes leading off it in all directions

All the things are in the same area, there's loads more stuff around there I haven't mentioned
If anyone finds out anything to do these sites i've posted, mind posting here about it?[/QUOTE]

I scanned around this area a bit more and found another complex- [B]41°15'58.24" N 100°20'38.78" E[/B]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/hcaK4.jpg[/IMG]

I'm sure those vehicles below are tanks

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/hnjJa.jpg[/IMG]

Also, another rocket launching facility- [B]41°18'28.77" N 100°19'25.96" E[/B]

[IMG]http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/17508622.jpg[/IMG]

No idea why most of the sites around here are labelled as "No.x", including the moat things which are labelled "No.x Mountain"

[lavacano]

[QUOTE=yawmwen;39178398]so that's where they house all the ancient chinese secrets...[/QUOTE]

I always wondered what a Calgon factory would look like