this mirage, which was partially hidden by fog, included buildings, trees, mountains, and some weird palace thing, all of which seemed to be floating on the river. there have apparently been other sights very similar to this lately, however none as clear as this one. one is alleged to have cleary shown witnesses of the mirage bustling crowds and moving cars.
it apparently started at 5pm local time.
heres some video on it, put on youtube by some random guy:
shockingly, i'm having difficulties believing this is true. there seems very little information about these sightings, despite apparently there being a large number of them, i don't speak chinese, so i don't know if the translation is correct, nobody seems to care about this mirage in the video, and i don't know what the usual skyline of the city is. and from the looks of those trees, its flooding or something, unless they're part of the mirage, which doubt. there are also no reputable sources about it, apart from some that have been posted with the video by the random guy, and i'm not familiar with the websites of them, so i don't know if he just made some websites that look like them.
but, just because something seems ridiculous and hoaxy, doesn't automatically mean it is. i'm going to get to the bottom of this. i figure writing a blog article about it will push me a little more to do it.
i went to some forum threads, to see the fruits of other peoples investigations. one of the links from the video is http://newscontent.cctv.com/news.jsp?fileId=112031 , which is from 'china central television,' where the vdeo apparently originated. from above topsecret.com, apparently they've tried, in the past, to show footage from the movie top gun, passing it off as footage of their own fighters.
click here for a video showing the two clips.
heres a pic of the childrens palace, which is the island where that weird palace thing they say is a mirage is:
this is still confusing though, they said it happened before, many times. it could be a mistranslation, or another hoax made by them for some reason, but why say its happened before, lots of times, in lots of other areas? maybe to explain why nobody on the bridge seems to care about the phantom buildings.
so, yeah, its a hoax, or a mistranslation, or something. i don't know who or why, but i'd rather not give them the satisfaction by continuing the search.
if you wish to see the abovetopsecret.com thread about it, click here
original video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7tK5zF4nw0&feature=player_embedded
UPDATE THINGY 27 JUNE: another blog, much better written than mine, and with much better pictures, has a post on this:
http://aukiman.blogspot.com/2011/06/huangshan-city-mirage-all-down-to-bad.html
if anyone reading this has something they wanna add, feel free to comment.
and, um, random picture that seems vaguely relevant:
My Chinese-speaking friend has proffered an interesting explanation: she says that the dialogue in the 2 clips we were able to locate where a passer-by was interviewed say that the mirage is simply the fact that the city appears to be floating/emerging from the mist. Those buildings are indeed usually there, and that is why the people aren't freaking out about the entire thing being a mirage. Mistranslation and/or the desire to report an ambiguous but excitingly mysterious story appear to be the reason several news rooms are suggesting the entire thing is a mirage.
ReplyDeletethanks man. that makes sense, and since your friend can understand the original report, and what the woman is really saying,she'd have a much better understanding of whats actually happening.
ReplyDeletei guess it must have been a slow news day in china!
This guy agrees with your theory and has some extra info for you! http://aukiman.blogspot.com/2011/06/huangshan-city-mirage-all-down-to-bad.html
ReplyDeletethanks, mikey. i've put a link to that blog in the post.
ReplyDelete