I searched for a more detailed map and found this:(...) the remote Chinese village of Huangyangtan hosts what must be the strangest military installation ever spotted by the Google Earth Community. Zooming in for a closer look, we have what appears to be a 900x700m scale model of a mountainous landscape. Complete with lakes, valleys and snow-capped peaks.
Don't, however, spend the next three days scouring the world's mountain ranges trying to find a geographical match: the legwork has already been done for you by this enterprising Google Earth Community member who correctly identified the model as representing this disputed area on the Chinese/Indian border.
It's clear that a huge amount of time and resources has been invested in this perplexing scale model, which incidentally represents an area of around 450 by 350 kilometers. The big question is: why? The only sensible explanation we can come up with is that it's a training aid for pilots - possibly helicopter jockeys - designed to familiarise them with the landscape should military action ever be required.
Full article (contains 2 pages)
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/china_indiaw_border_88.jpg
If you rotate it 90 degrees counterclockwise you can easily fit the waterlines Pangong Tso and Banggong Co in the Google Earth image. Also, note that the Chinese 'playfield' is not too far away from the undefined boundary area between India and Pakistan.
So, what are the Chinese up to? Are they waiting -or maybe stimulating- the Indian/Pakistani conflict to escalate and then jump in? If so, the most logical alliance would be with Pakistan, because they don't claim terrain from eachother.
Also I am wondering what excactly could be so special about Kashmir. One might argue that the conflict is based mainly on proud, revenge or whatever pathological motives. On the other hand, if three nuclear powers are so heavily interested in a desolate area, there might be some juicy (hidden?) treasures. Any thoughts?
Slightly offtopic: last week I watched the Indian movie Main Hoon Na, a sort of mix between Grease and The Matrix (the latter because of the special effects, not the theme). I'm no expert on Indian movies, but what intrigued me was that the 'baddies' were in fact Indian terrorists, and the main message was establishing peace with Pakistan. Well, quite a nice signal! Can you imagine a Hollywood production that deals with American terrorists? I guess, they will conveniently call the baddies 'criminals' in that case (please correct me if such movies do exist).