Bizarre reason why all of China's highways are misaligned on Google Earth

Millions of people use maps every single day to get from A to B, but if you’re planning a trip to Asia, you might want to think about dusting off an old Atlas, as China’s highways are misaligned on Google Earth.

Whether it’s Apple, Google, Waze, Sat Nav, or any other GPS system used by millions, daily drivers are always mapping out routes ahead of time.

But in a bid to throw the world off scent, China has had second thoughts about giving GPS systems a map to every inch of the country.

Instead, China’s highways are misaligned, or skewed, and it has a reason for the grand deception.

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Here’s why China’s highways are misaligned on Google Earth

People use Google Earth for all kinds of reasons. Some people use it to travel around the US and find abandoned cars and restoration projects.

Others use the satellite tool to learn more about our massive planet, finding islands that they would never have heard of otherwise.

But if you’ve ever decided to take a peek inside China, you will quickly understand that not everything is as it seems, and roads are not an exact replica there.

Why? Well, it’s apparently a national security matter, as they use a coordinate system to scramble objects in a 50-500m radius on purpose.

According to Redditors, this is done for two reasons: not allowing the rest of the world to see the exact location of buildings and bunkers, and to market a more accurate mapping system to offer to Chinese residents.

“China uses the GCJ-02 coordinate system instead of the global WGS-84 standard. This system includes an intentional ‘obfuscation algorithm’ that randomly offsets map coordinates for national security reasons,” one popular comment read.

Mathematicians have released a distortion-reversal key, showing the places that have been changed the most, but an accurate map is left under lock and key for Chinese residents only.

Why are all of China’s highways misaligned on Google Earth?
byu/SavenTale ingeography

What else can’t you see on Google Maps?

The Chinese highways aren’t the only place in the world that uses scrambling tech, as such cartography is used in areas in the US, such as Fort Knox and the Naval Observatory.

Other countries like Spain, France, and Indonesia have certain military buildings blurred on Google Maps too, but rather due to legalities with Google, instead of purposeful misalignment.

And, there’s a massive 14-mile stretch in Antarctica that has been blurred and remains a mystery to everyone.

Still, there are a lot of secrets on Google Earth that have been uncovered, like this random runway in a South American jungle.

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