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November 07, 2006

Mysterious China: Targets in the Desert

It's no secret that Korla is a city of some military importance. A few of you may remember my discovery on Google Maps last year of PLA fighter jets sitting on a runway south of Korla. With those jets flying overhead almost daily, there must be something going on around here. I was browsing the Korla area using Google Earth recently when I noticed a series of strange-looking marks in the desert east of the city. Not just any old marks... but the unmistakable "bomb-me" outline of a target with crosshairs. The roar of a jet engine overhead made everything click.

It's not that I was scanning the desert inch-by-inch for oddities... I had the Google Earth Community layer turned on and some wackos had already put placemarks there before I got the chance. It's a bit depressing to think there are people out there scanning the globe at close-range in order to find "UFO landing sites" and the like. But these markings — which appeared to be practice bombing targets of some sort — are out in the desert just a few miles east of my current location, so I knew I'd get the chance some day to take a closer look.

I've been occasionaly tutoring a student in English for the past couple of months, and when his "uncle" lent him a Jeep this past weekend I suggested an attempt at finding these strange signs in the sand. The journey started out poorly: our vehicle got stuck in the sand near Korla's new development zone and we had to be rescued by a shovel-wielding but friendly manual laborer. Then we couldn't find the road we were looking for... seems that Google Earth's "less than 3-years old" satellite photography policy doesn't cut it for navigation in a rapidly developing China.

Yet eventually we found the "mysterious" chalk mine we were looking for, the first clue that we were somewhat on track... our second clue was a sign warning that we were entering an active military zone. Yikes! At that point we should have been very close to our first two targets, but we searched and found nothing. Still, we forged eastward and suddenly off to the left I spotted something white and very out-of-place on the brown surface of the desert. Closer inspection revealed what should have been our third target... but hey, we were happy to find anything! After that, finding the other targets was a piece of cake:

Pretty cool, eh? From the craters we saw around a few of the targets, it's does seem that they are indeed used for practice bombing runs. The small size of these craters, however, would indicate that only dummy bombs are used... so I can sleep safely knowing that I won't be blown up in my bed (not by the PLA, at least).

For those of you with Google Earth installed (you really should have it), click here for an awesome little tour I put together detailing the search.

So, can I convince any of you readers living in China to search Google Earth in your area and possibly put together your own installment of "Mysterious China"? I'll see what other strange places I can manage to dig up here in Xinjiang.

posted November 07, 2006 at 05:50 PM unofficial Xinjiang time | HaoHao This!

Comments

Posted by: ky at November 10, 2006 12:10 PM

Posted by: michael at November 10, 2006 12:10 PM

Posted by: cph at November 11, 2006 09:50 PM

Posted by: Steven at November 14, 2006 07:38 PM

Posted by: haonan at November 18, 2006 07:39 PM

Posted by: masterofsea at November 19, 2006 09:05 AM

Posted by: Sayem at November 19, 2006 05:59 PM

Posted by: Jeff at November 20, 2006 10:39 AM

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