A Floating City: Revisited

China is known for inventions that pave the way for the future of humanity. In 1000 C.E., they introduced us to gunpowder and 100 years later they were navigating with compasses but, the innovative country's newest addition to the world is quite controversial and I'm not talking about the production of cheap electronics. Nope, this time we're talking about China's futuristic city. That just so happens to be floating among the clouds at about 15,000 feet. So, Let's take an in-depth look at this bizarre phenomena!

Sightings

June 2011
Hundreds of residents from the city of Penglai in the Shandong Province of China witnessed the floating city for an extremely brief moment. One resident, out of hundreds, was fortunate enough to capture the city on footage. Shortly after, the video began circulating on the internet and sparked all sorts of speculation.

October 2015

Four years after the initial sighting, the floating city made a dramatic reappearance. Residents from both the Jiangxi province and the Guangdong province claimed to have spotted the city-like apparition in the clouds. The floating city was again captured on film but this time Chinese news media actually acknowledged the sighting and proceeded to interview locals. News agencies around the globe followed suit.

March 2016

The floating buildings, apparently becoming more frequent, appeared twice in six months.  This time, residents reported seeing the cloud based city from the Liaoning Province. It made its appearance over the sea to the east, which seems to be a first, and CCTV - China's 24 hour English language television channel - ran the story on March 19th.

January 2017

The floating city made its fourth and last recorded appearance in China, just after the new year began. Allegedly, thousands of people, including both residents and tourists, reported seeing the so-called 'mirage' from the Hunan Province. 

Note: This is not a complete list. There have been sightings reported in Nigeria (2011), California, USA (2015), Ireland, UK (2015), as well as many others that remain unconfirmed.

Possible Explanations 

Fata Morgana (Mirage)

A hypothesis from an unnamed, atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University, put forth the idea that the floating city was nothing more than a mere optical illusion called Fata Morgana. Fata Morgana is a complex, superior mirage seen in a narrow band right above the horizon and can sometimes rapidly change. The issue with this hypothesis, if you haven't already figured it out, is that the footage captured clearly shows the floating city is not right above the horizon but rather thousands of feet in the sky. 

Example of Fata Morgana

Media Magic
An independent filmmaker and YouTube personality named Alan Melikdjanian (a.k.a. CaptainDisillusion) released a video on the subject following the sighting in 2015. Melikdjanian has a track record for exposing viral online videos as fakes by showing his viewers the media magic that takes place behind the scenes. His video pertaining to the floating city is no different but that's not to say there aren't some issues with his explanation. For instance, he falls short of explaining how they added onlookers into the footage, as is the case with the 2017 sighting. The sheer number of people who reported seeing the floating city also causes issues with this explanation.
CaptainDisillusion's Debunk Video

Atmospheric Projections

Conspiracy theorists have put forth the idea that the floating city was actually the Chinese government testing an atmospheric projection technology. This wouldn't be the first time a government delved into this technology either. In fact, a United States Major General Edward Lansdale devised a plan, revieled in a 1975 document, to overthrow Fidel Castro by convincing the Cuban population that Jesus Christ had returned by projecting images on low lying clouds using a submarine.

1975 Document

Parallel Universe

This explanation holds very little water due to the extreme difficulty of proving and/or disproving it but the idea is that the floating city was actually from a parallel universe. I am unable to find an original source but rather a vague conspiracy involving radical experiments at the Large Hardron Collider (LHC) complex in Geneva, Switzerland. To be honest, if it wasn't for the news media constantly echoing this idea I wouldn't have even addressed it. 

My Theory 

I typically try to remain objective when writing informative pieces but, after spending hundreds of hours researching this subject I have formed my own theory. I would like to remind everyone that this is nothing more than informed speculation. 

I believe there is an actual city floating somewhere high above the surface of earth. 

yes, really. I know I sound crazy, that's how I know I'm not.

If you aren't familiar with the Denver Airport conspiracy, you should do a little research because there are some very strange occurrences. One of the many oddities surrounding the Denver Airport involves painted murals that have since been either moved or painted over. The paintings have a very eerie vibe to them and contain a vast amount of symbolism. There is one in particular that is relevant to my theory. 

  (Notice anything strange?)

(How about now?)

There is a floating city in the Denver Airport murals!!

Now, the real kicker is that these murals were painted in the early 90's. The first 'public' sighting of the floating city wasn't until almost twenty years later in 2011. Until I found this mural I was on board with the atmospheric projection theory but this changes everything. Could this be the result of the secret space program's breakaway civilization? If so, I'm willing  to bet the only reason we even saw it was because the cloaking technology was acting up or they wanted us to see it. The latter would explain why the sightings are becoming more frequent. It would also explain the space nation of Asgardia.(I totally signed up) 

Often enough, truth really is stranger than fiction...