Potemkin Village? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fortitude http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Army The visual deception arm of the Ghost Army was the 603rd Camouflage Engineers. It was equipped with inflatable tanks, cannons, jeeps, trucks, and airplanes that the men would inflate with air compressors, and then camouflage imperfectly so that enemy air reconnaissance could see them. At 12:54 PM 11/15/2011, Stuart Anderson wrote:

"Perhaps it's some kind of targeting or calibrating grid for Chinese spy satellites? .... Nobody really knows," technology website Gizmodo speculated.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.458148,93.393145&hl=en&ll=40.458018,93.3925...

... others said the structures, some of which are near Jiuquan, China's space city, could just be training sites for cosmonauts practising their landings and walks.

They may also be practice ranges for the People's Liberation Army.

"The picture of the circle looks very like a missile test range, with target and instrumentation set out to record weapon effects. The Americans have lots of these in Nevada - Area 51," Tim Ripley of military magazine Jane's Defence Weekly told the Telegraph.

Paul Marks, of the New Scientist magazine, said that, by zooming in on the images, viewers could possibly make out some military planes.

"One of the other formation ... looking tantalisingly like Stonehenge from a great height, zooming in reveals three aircraft sitting at its heart. Clearly, it is some kind of military target for airstrike or gunnery practice," he wrote.

"Another 4 x 4 piece grid some 200 metres across has some pieces clearly blown to smithereens, again supporting the target practice theory, and a dummy runway in garish bluish-white is probably not for style-conscious aliens but air-to-ground strafing practice."

Of course, Google Maps may have been hacked and the images may be part of an elaborate hoax. They could be the "21st century version of crop circles", Marks wrote. "

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/chinas-area-51-mystery-dese...

Stuart Anderson