Video Shows ‘Floating City’ In Clouds Hovering Over China

Is it a parallel universe? Has China mastered levitating cities? No, according to weather experts, but a strange phenomenon in China is causing a major stir online.

On October 7, thousands of residents reported seeing a city skyline floating above the Chinese city of Foshan, located in China’s Guangdong province. Residents were able to capture video of the other-worldly sight. Watch:

The video appears to show a city floating thousands of feet up in the air in the clouds.

Conspiracy theorists were quick to jump on the crazy video as proof of some weird government tests, or that our universe was intersecting with another parallel dimension. But the explanation lies in another area of scientific study: weather.

Meteorology experts say the phenomenon was most likely an optical illusion known as Fata Morgana.

Fata Morgana is a kind of mirage that distorts distant objects when the sun heats up the atmosphere above land or sea, creating a gradient of temperatures. The mirage typically appears to look like a city due to a successive series of stacked images.

In 2011, a similar sighting was reported over Huangshan City, China.

So, is it a mirage, or is this all some vast conspiracy to hide the truth and keep us grounded? Get it, grounded?