Optical Illusion or Hoax: Mysterious Buildings and Mountains Appear in China

Huangshan City Mirage, All Down to Bad Translation

June 26, 2011

Absolute Aukiman - Huangshan city mirage in a nutshell, just a winning combination of bad chinese translation and sensationalist reporting.

Huangshan City in Anhui Province, China was one city out of a number affected by the 2011 flooding in 12 or 13 provinces. By the 14th June 2011 the water had exceeded warning levels in reservoirs and inundated the city.

Incredibly, video footage of the floods, as they claimed low lying areas of the city were broadcast and sensationalised by western media who misreported an all too literal translation of the interpretation describing the amazing wet and misty weather framing the scenery.

Perhaps ironically it is the 'Chinese Whispers' phenomenon at play here but the story became one of insanely amazing mirages, the clarity of which has never been seen before. It was circulated via news websites presumably in the same hurried fashion that does away with any cross checking of facts and the youtube videos went viral, along with the emergence of the inevitable conspiracy and prophecy theories of hologram technology, the second coming and otherworldy portals.

In fact the truth is somewhat a little more mundane than the fiction, the 'floating' buildings suspended in mist above the river as described by the majority of news sites are actually nothing more than the buildings which are already currently in existence as seen THROUGH the fog, the 'floating' trees are explained by nothing more mysterious than the river having swollen and flooded low lying ground.

For easy identification the coloured key and identifiable landmarks are marked for you with the corresponding slides from the video.

Internet hype and misinformation sure does spread quickly in this day and age!

Mystery City Skyline, Mountains Appear in Middle of China River – Video

June 18, 2011

Death By 1000 Paper Cuts - Which 'mystery' city appeared in a mirage in eastern China on Thursday?

An amazing video news report from China of an 'optical illusion' that appeared at approximately 5 PM, local time on Thursday in eastern China at the Tunxi section of the Xin’an River in Huangshan City, the mirage, a spectacular skyline of a city and mountains.
According to the news report in the video, the latest 'optical illusion' is one of several that have been recently seen in the area. We wondered, does anyone know the identity of the 'mystery' city? Was the optical illusion a 'real city'?
Video of 'city skyline' optical illusion filmed in Huangshan, China, on Thursday, June 16, 2011:
The mirage or optical illusion has some wondering if the illusion is related to NASA's Project Blue Beam and/or HAARP?

On May 7, 2005, another city skyline 'optical illusion' appeared after a heavy rain off the shore of Penglai City in eastern China's Shandong Province. During the four hour appearance, thousands of residents in Penglai City saw not only a city, the residents witnessed 'bustling cars as well as crowds of people all clearly visible'.

Over at the U.K.'s Weather Online website is the explanation of mirages and optical illusions. Based on their explanation, the mysterious mirage cities seen in China are 'superior mirages.'
[Snip]

A famous superior mirage is the Fata Morgana, most frequently seen in the Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily. However, Fata Morgana’s are also frequent in deserts, after night time radiation has cooled down the sand to temperatures lower than the air above. Distant objects appear extremely elongated, giving the impression of buildings and towns in the distance. This phenomenon is also known as ‘castles in the air’.

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