# What is this? Ghostly mirage of city in China **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 26, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942 "2011-06-26T21:17:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kapri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kapri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kapri)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/1 "2011-06-26T21:17:05Z")
[This](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2008161/Ghostly-mirage-appears-river-Huanshan-City-China.html)seems really weird to me. Is this real or even possible? ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/2 "2011-06-26T21:22:28Z")
From the comments > [@](#): > > It’s frightening to think that the person who wrote this article is supposed to be a ‘reporter’. It took me about a minute to find out that you’ve misconstrued this whole thing. THAT IS NOT A MIRAGE! The people are simply saying that it looks like the buildings look like they are floating on clouds. THOSE BUILDING ARE REAL AND SITUATED WHERE THEY ALWAYS ARE! So yes it’s entirely possible that this was the result of terrible reporting and fact checking. ---
**Author:** ![kapri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kapri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kapri)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/3 "2011-06-26T21:30:35Z")
> [@Moonlitherial](#): > > From the comments > > So yes it’s entirely possible that this was the result of terrible reporting and fact checking. Wow, really? I didn’t bother to read the comments because I figured . . . well, I guess I figured wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/4 "2011-06-26T21:35:00Z")
Mirages DO happen, and are occasionally[spectacular](http://english.cri.cn/811/2006/05/07/421@85556.htm), and I think that’s where the confusion in this article came in. Bad reporting though. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/5 "2011-06-26T22:03:03Z")
sheesh, that’s fog and/or pollution. Mirage my ass. To be fair, maybe you’ve never seen anything like this before and thus a little taken in. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/6 "2011-06-26T22:14:11Z")
Good ole Daily Mail. ---
**Author:** ![kapri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kapri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kapri)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/7 "2011-06-26T22:50:20Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > sheesh, that’s fog and/or pollution. Mirage my ass. To be fair, maybe you’ve never seen anything like this before and thus a little taken in. Do you mean maybe I’ve never seen pollution before? What? I live on the US East Coast. I grew out outside Philadelphia, near the oil refineries on the Delaware River. I’ve seen pollution. But I never saw a city skyline reflected in that pollution. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/8 "2011-06-26T22:54:39Z")
But the article says the view in that direction is usually just open water. So, not low mist making the buildings across the way look like they are floating…the point was that there ARE no buildings across the way, right? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/9 "2011-06-26T23:06:19Z")
This is a _relatively_ common phenomenon called a [superior mirage](http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/supmrge.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/10 "2011-06-27T03:05:06Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > This is a _relatively_ common phenomenon called a [superior mirage](http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/supmrge.htm). Wouldn’t a superior mirage of a city skyline be an image of upside-down buildings? (Like in the diagram of the sailboat in your link.) **kittenblue** , the story is flat-out wrong, presumably due to translation issues. It’s just a somewhat cool sight that the real buildings appear to be floating in a cloud. If it were a mirage, what would the reflection be _of_? And if the image is of buildings that don’t actually exist, it totally _would_ be like a supernatural vortex and there would be crowds of people more or less freaking out, not like the “ooh, it’s like an enchanted fairyland” woman in the video. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/11 "2011-06-27T03:20:08Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > Mirages DO happen, and are occasionally[spectacular](http://english.cri.cn/811/2006/05/07/421@85556.htm), and I think that’s where the confusion in this article came in. Bad reporting though. What the article, frustratingly, never explains is… what city were they seeing? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/12 "2011-06-27T03:54:18Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > Wouldn’t a superior mirage of a city skyline be an image of upside-down buildings? (Like in the diagram of the sailboat in your link.) Not always - it may be inverted or not, depending on many variables (relative temperatures, distance between observers, object and distorting atmosphere.) The buildings would ordinarily be hidden by the horizon. It’s a startling effect, but [it](http://davewalshphoto.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Fata-Morgana-Arctic-Mirage/G0000SfW3sz1z0s8/I0000Ks7K3CTiit4)[happens](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_dVsfGxKfuvE/Sx74VorFuoI/AAAAAAAAAUc/FTWjRc7cFH4/s1600-h/CD_North3_2410%5B2%5D.jpg) [fairly](http://lh5.ggpht.com/_dVsfGxKfuvE/Sx74USz1pEI/AAAAAAAAAUE/Gp29X-tKvIY/s1600-h/Mirage_OTP_Dec_2087%5B2%5D.jpg) [frequently](http://antarcticfudgesicles.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/jessie-photos-2-2.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/13 "2011-06-27T04:24:54Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > Not always - it may be inverted or not, depending on many variables (relative temperatures, distance between observers, object and distorting atmosphere.) > > The buildings would ordinarily be hidden by the horizon. It’s a startling effect, but [it](http://davewalshphoto.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Fata-Morgana-Arctic-Mirage/G0000SfW3sz1z0s8/I0000Ks7K3CTiit4)[happens](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_dVsfGxKfuvE/Sx74VorFuoI/AAAAAAAAAUc/FTWjRc7cFH4/s1600-h/CD_North3_2410%5B2%5D.jpg) [fairly](http://lh5.ggpht.com/_dVsfGxKfuvE/Sx74USz1pEI/AAAAAAAAAUE/Gp29X-tKvIY/s1600-h/Mirage_OTP_Dec_2087%5B2%5D.jpg) [frequently](http://antarcticfudgesicles.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/jessie-photos-2-2.jpg). Fascinating. Good article [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_%28mirage%29), although I’m not clear on the difference between a “generic” superior mirage and a Fata Morgana, or which of those the Chinese mirage is. The Daily Mail pictures and videos are 100 times clearer than any of the pics you linked, or the ones at Wikipedia, which is why it’s hard to believe the Chinese city is in fact a mirage. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/14 "2011-06-27T05:51:47Z")
[Here’s the city in Google maps.](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Huangshan,+Anhui,+China&hl=en&ll=29.70371,118.301983&spn=0.024379,0.052314&sll=36.244273,134.472656&sspn=45.733379,107.138672&t=h&z=15) The river isn’t that wide. I think all that’s going on is that low-lying fog made it look like the city was floating on clouds. The whole mirage thing doesn’t make any sense. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/15 "2011-06-27T12:39:59Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > **kittenblue** , the story is flat-out wrong, presumably due to translation issues. It’s just a somewhat cool sight that the real buildings appear to be floating in a cloud. > > If it were a mirage, what would the reflection be _of_? And if the image is of buildings that don’t actually exist, it totally _would_ be like a supernatural vortex and there would be crowds of people more or less freaking out, not like the “ooh, it’s like an enchanted fairyland” woman in the video. But do we only know of these supposed translation issues because of the one comment? Or has anyone on the Dope read the original article in Chinese? ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/16 "2011-06-27T17:51:33Z")
Yea, until I see footage of what it’s supposed to look like without the fog, it’s just fog floating over the river with buildings in the background. ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-ghostly-mirage-of-city-in-china/586942/17 "2011-06-27T19:12:25Z")
Clearly a rip in the space-time continuum.