IT looks like any other city skyline with skyscrapers, a few mountains and trees – except it isn’t real. The giant mirage appeared across the skyline near in East China earlier this month after heavy rainfall and humid conditions along the Xin’an River. As mist settled over the river at dusk, tall buildings appeared to rise from nowhere, leading residents in nearby Huanshan City to speculate that the vision may be a “vortex” to a lost civilisation. “It’s really amazing, it looks like a scene in a movie, in a fairlyland,” one resident told UK news channel ITN.
The mysterious city had vanished just as quickly as it had come. Scientists have quashed the vortex theory and, as per usual, have a simple explanation for the incredible sight. They believe it may have been a mirage, caused when moisture in the air becomes warmer than the temperature of the water below. When rays of sunlight cross from the colder air into the warmer air they are refracted or bent – creating a reflection in the air that looks similar to a reflection in water. It’s a common sight for many travellers on Australian roads. But we Australians tend to see puddles of water that disappear when you get close, not entire cities floating on rivers.
Calling Fox Mulder….
Good Story. Nice voice on the news reader.
Better: identify the city that is being projected. Should be easy enough to do. I’ve only ever seen mirage “lakes” in the desert and they looked fake.
Ain’t nature/science/our world grand?
This report is incomplete and typical of news stories everywhere. Done by some knucklehead who does not understand what they are reporting on. Obviously, these building exist SOMEWHERE. Where? is the question. This sort of optical effect is not unheard of. The buildings are further away than they appear. What buildings are they? It’s SOMEWHERE. There have been mirages wherein the people in the streets or a distant city are visible.
A youtube video would be more comprehensive and informative than this bit of “professional” reporting.
I am at work and don’t have access to my books but I believe the phenomenon is explained nicely in Minnaert’s “Nature of Light and Color in the Open Air”. Correct, LCR, the city has to actually exist, but it can be quite far away, depending on the topography of the land in between.
This was shown by several sources to be complete BS. The city is completely real and exactly where it’s supposed to be.
For two no mirages look like this at all, even ones that are stretched vertically to resemble buildings.
For three, a local flood and fog surprised people, but the translations have nothing to do with the story’s premise.
One debunker even showed a map detailing where everything really is. No mystery AT ALL.
A city viewed over a layer of fog does not equal a “mirage.”
McCullough needs to discover the editorial process known as corroboration.
[I'm still waiting for that link Buzz - ed. McCullough]
#4. It’s fine to insult me, but at least provide a link.
Yeah, would it have been that hard for ITN to, maybe, take an AFTER video to show us what it normally looks like?? Context would be nice…
Actually, the air is so polluted in China, this is the first time that many residents saw those buildings from that distance.
#7. Now THAT’S a plausible explanation, har!
wirelessg, LOL!
Man, you’ve got that right!
How come all these weird things happen in some other country??
Harder to verify if it’s in the middle of China??
I think WirelessG has the most probably explanation.
If the Chinese are unused to seeing clear air, it could have seemed much closer than it actually was.
I also agree with LCR — what a lousy job of reporting.
Well, the answer is OBVIOUS! It’s clearly a rip in the fabric of space-time, exposing an alternate parallel universe. Why do people always try to dream up a complicated “mirage” theory, when the truth is so simple?
#5 – it’s ok to insult you?
Ok, here goes: you’re ugly and your hygiene is questionable. But I have no source links to back this claim.
McCullough is man, he can take it.
From the link:
“The giant mirage appeared across the skyline near in East China earlier this month after heavy rainfall and humid conditions along the Xin’an River.
“As mist settled over the river at dusk, tall buildings appeared to rise from nowhere, leading residents in nearby Huanshan City to speculate that the vision may be a “vortex” to a lost civilisation.
“Scroll down to see amazing footage of the ghost city
“It’s really amazing, it looks like a scene in a movie, in a fairlyland,” one resident told UK news channel ITN.
“The mysterious city had vanished just as quickly as it had come.
OK, people. It’s obvious what this is. It rained in China. Fog appeared. The buildings near the water had a fog layer beneath them. The residents thought it was unusual. They took pictures. The Australian “JOURNALISTS” ran a story about a “mysterious city”.
Somewhere it got transformed from a mist-enshrouded city to a “mirage” or a “mysterioius city”.
Sheesh! Anyone ready to accept that “JOURNALISTS” are often dumb shits?
(I work for a major television network’s owned and operated news station in SF. Believe me, there are very few bright people inside the building.)
10 we have congress and obama how much weirder do you want things to get.
we get a similar phenomena to the one described, here in the great lakes, often we can see a bit of Canada from Cleveland when there is a temperature inversion over the lake.
Obviously this is all Dick Cheney’s fault. The sheeple will believe anything if a sexy voice says it.
#7 nailed it.
I don’t know how old everyone is on this board. But back in the mid 1980′s, the air pollution in the Los Angeles basin was really, really bad. Much worse than it is today. The winds use to push all the LA smog east and it would pile up against the mountains in San Bernardino and Riverside. It was so bad that you literally could not see more than 1/4 a mile on most any given day.
I used to have to drive out to March Air Force Base in Riverside a few times a week for my job. For years I never once saw any mountains or hills between Ontario and Redlands. All you saw was brown gunk.
Now when I drive through the area, I am always amazed at how much I can see. Most days I can see the tops of the San Bernardino mountains, from Mt. Baldy to Mt. San Jacinto.
When all you known is pollution, sudden clear skies seem startling.
On a similar vein….
After the Northridge earthquake, many people commented how “alive” the night sky seemed. It felt like something had changed in the heavens. The reason was simple… no power… thus no light pollution. No one in LA had seen the stars for years. When they finally did that night, it kinda freaked them out.
There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that this is a new city built by and for Foxconn.
Apple public relations reiterated that this city has nothing to do with the iPhone5 and the city did not appear when Steve Jobs lost his train of thought and the Reality Distortion Field wavered.