Riddle of China's Area 51

On the internet, a little mystery can go a long way.
Six weeks ago, a man living in Germany and calling himself KenGrok, announced a fascinating discovery on a Google Earth Community forum. Poring over satellite images of China on the free Google Earth service, he came across a strange plot of land - approximately 900 metres by 700 metres, about the size of six Sydney Cricket Grounds.

The land, which KenGrok said was landscape that had been modelled for military purposes, is situated near the town of Huangyangtan about 35 kilometres from Yinchuan, the capital of the autonomous region of Ningxia, in northern China. Nearby, there is a substantial facility complete with rows of red-roofed buildings, scores of what look to be military trucks and a large compound with elevated lookout posts and a large communications tower. The land was contoured in a way that was out of sync with the surrounding countryside. It appeared to be a mountainous region, complete with snow-capped peaks and glacial valleys dotted with numerous lakes. Yet this piece of land was slap bang in the middle of a largely arid area due west of the rich alluvial plains bordering the upper reaches of the Yellow River.

A fellow Google Earth enthusiast suggested that the topography indicated that this was probably a model of land on one of China's frontiers. KenGrok went looking and two weeks later came back with the answer. The swatch was a scale model of 157,500 square kilometres of territory in and around China's Aksai Chin border region that abuts India and Pakistan.

The scale is exactly 500:1.

Tim Brown, a senior fellow specialising in satellite imagery analysis at GlobalSecurity.org, said it was one of the more intriguing discoveries he had come across. He said that, while he was aware of military trainers using terrain models, these were mostly only on a much smaller scale.

Breaking news: China’s real Area 51 UFO zone revealed
Michael Cohen m.cohen@--.com

For years many westerners, especially UFO researchers, have wondered where China’s equivalent of the Area-51 in the US is without being able to pinpoint a location. Now thanks to an All News Web exclusive investigation we are able to solve this mystery with a high degree of certainty.

Recently this article along with photos appeared in the Govt owned Chinese regional newspaper, Sichuan Daily. The most curious article, titled 'A large number of Air Force SU-30/SU-27 fighters assemble in China's Area 51',refers to an area in the Sichuan province and includes some photos. The article mentiones that a large scale gathering and training exercise involving China’s hi-tech SU-27 jet-fighters is taking place there at the current time. Strangely, the article does not specify the exact location of this event.

Even stranger is the article's lengthy explanation of the original Area 51’s alien and UFO connection all while referring to this area as China's equivalent. Thanks to some sharp-eyed local readers, the area has been now been identified as within the Chengdu Military Zone near the city of Chengdu which is the capital of the south-western province of Sichuan. The specific field lies between the Chengdu Military Area Air Force Command headquarters and the Bai Shiyi (White City) Military Airport. Does this represent a leak by the Chinese authorities designed to reveal that they too possess UFO technology?

Many will be asking why China is now engaging in these intense military exercises. Others will be asking if there is a connection to this area and the alleged UFO bases high in the Himalayas to its west or if activities here have anything to do with the multitude of mass UFO sightings occurring throughout China. One thing is for certain, China’s newly revealed Area 51 probably holds some earth-shattering secrets.

In case the Chinese are checking ATS for secrets. The Navy went to a different system for the missile to track by.

Originally posted by defcon5
The land, which KenGrok said was landscape that had been modelled for military purposes, is situated near the town of Huangyangtan about 35 kilometres from Yinchuan, the capital of the autonomous region of Ningxia, in northern China. Nearby, there is a substantial facility complete with rows of red-roofed buildings, scores of what look to be military trucks and a large compound with elevated lookout posts and a large communications tower. The land was contoured in a way that was out of sync with the surrounding countryside. It appeared to be a mountainous region, complete with snow-capped peaks and glacial valleys dotted with numerous lakes. Yet this piece of land was slap bang in the middle of a largely arid area due west of the rich alluvial plains bordering the upper reaches of the Yellow River.

The Area KenGrok found is not the same as this one (The one in the movie you linked is the same)


The KenGrock Area is one I was going to post another thread on but I will add it here as its only one location

Huangyangtanzhan
1:500 scale model re-creation of Aksai Chin
+38° 15' 57.00", +105° 57' 6.50"

On the west side of the village Huangyangtan is what I take to be a military facility of some kind (judging by the masses of olive-colored trucks parked there). And right next to that is a scale-model of a landscape. I haven't tried to identify which region it depicts, but it doesn't seem to be a model of the region where this has been built. The model is mostly mountain ranges, complete with lakes and snow-capped peaks.

Googling Huangyangtan comes up with a number of reports about anti-desertification measures to be taken there (assuming this is the same Huangyangtan as I have found here). There does seem to be a lot of tree-planting around the facility and the model. But not enought to stop sand from blowing into Beijing. The whole area to the west looks like a military exercise area. Maybe if I could read them the giant Chinese letters painted onto some of the hills would tell me more about that area, at least.

In any case, any ideas what the function of this model landscape has?

-- KenGrok

Aksai Chin (Simplified Chinese: 阿克赛钦, Ākèsàiqīn,Hindi:अकसाई चिन) is a region located at the juncture of China, Pakistan, and India. It represents about one fifth of Jammu and Kashmir. It is administered by China and claimed by India. Aksai Chin is one of the two main border disputes between India and China, the other being the dispute over Arunachal Pradesh. Aksai Chin (the name literally means "Chin's desert of white stones") is a vast high-altitude desert of salt that reaches heights up to 5,000 metres. It covers an area of 42685 km2 of the disputed territory. Geographically part of the Tibetan Plateau, Aksai Chin is referred to as the Soda Plain. The region is almost uninhabited, has no permanent settlements, and receives little precipitation as the Himalayan and other mountains block the rains from the Indian monsoon.