UPI has picked up Kengrok's post and made it NEWS again!!

Click Here!!

Thanks for the info. The UPI release was rather weak, I think. ABC News has the find at their site, too, and it's actually pretty good (ABC News - Huangyangtan). They got the analysis of a number of authorities who had some fairly informative things to say.

well done KenGrok !!! you have reached the turkish press too. the
content is same to other reports

greetings from cologne

chickenswitch

Turkish Press

First Post

This region shows parts of the Aksai Chin disputed territory, the Nubra Valley, the Hanle basin, the capital city of Leh and a whole lot more. Actually this is the place where the 1962 Sino-Indian war was fought. Even today this is a high-security zone, albeit a bit less stressed since China and India have signed a treaty till 2007.

Aksai Chin was once part of the ancient Ladakh kingdom.

The largest water body in the mock-up is the Pangong Tso, as it is known in India. One-third of the lake falls in India and the rest is in China. Arguably said to be 120 kms long, it freezes over in the winters.

One can also see Tso Moriri, Tso Kar and the twin lakes of Kyun Tso (Tso stands for lake in Ladakhi). These are pretty popular tourist destinations.

The Hanle basin is also home to the highest astronomical observatory in the world, housing the Chandra telescope. This mock-up also covers the highest battlefield in the world, the Siachen glacier, since it falls approximately in this region.

So in effect, there are 3 countries here - India, China and Pakistan (technically Pakistan Occupied Kashmir).

Just returned from a month long biking vacation to these places

Regards,
Vinod.

Nice to hear some details about the area. But you're probably kicking yourself for departing for Aksai Chin before reading this post. You would have saved yourself a lot of time and trouble, by choosing to head off to the replica instead. You could have walked through Aksai Chin in an afternoon without even breaking a sweat. On the other hand, perhaps the hard work of biking through the non-virtual landscape had its benefits, too.

Maybe you can post some placemarks + photos in the Travel forum when you're ready.

Here's an interesting article in one of India's newspapers. Rather than repeat what has been said elsewhere the reporter has done some original research; he contacted the Chinese Army for a statement: Article in the Indian Express

Someone at the Sydney Morning Herald blog about the replica posted this link WForum which shows a photo that could very well be from training exercises held at the Huangyangtan site. Even after installing the Chinese character set for Internet Exploder I still couldn't read the accompanying text (I suppose it would help to learn it in the first place).

What does everyone think, especially those who can read Chinese?

Hope it can help.
This is an image of the chinese (?) comment of the photo



Greetings