It seems that more than one person has had the idea of theming their swimming pool around aeroplanes…

Here’s a small private plane-shaped pool in Miami.

This is the Flying W Airport in New Jersey, where they have a cool plane-shaped pool with “W”s on the wings. Flying W is described as a “flying airport resort“, and whilst I’m not sure exactly what that is, there’s definitely real planes parked right next to the pool. Very odd.

Over in Cairo, Egypt, they’ve taken a quite different approach and illustrated a fighter jet on the bottom of this circular pool, which also features a very large bird of prey. Do these insignia hold some sort of significance I wonder?

Finally, in China, they’ve dispensed with swimming pools, a built an entire lake in the shape of a plane! This is right next to a decent sized airport, so maybe this is a hotel.

Whilst swimming here might not be very pleasant, if you look closely you’ll see that instead, you might be able to take a boat trip in this plane!

Thanks to 93f2, Felippo, Majoska and kjfitz.

This aircraft carrier in China is going to have a hard time achieving much while locked in a small lake some 30 miles from the sea.

That’s because it’s a ¾ scale model of the U.S. Nimitz Class Aircraft carrier, and is part of the “military education centre” of Orient Green Boat after-school camp for youngsters. Don’t ask me what youngsters at an after-school camp actually do with an aircraft carrier.

As an added bonus the 380 hectare park is purportedly the “largest sculpture park in the world” (More info from Global Security).

Also going nowhere is the $7 million North Avenue Beach House in Chicago. The ship-shaped building was originally built around the time of the Great Depression and then received a full makeover back in 2000.

Previous Landlocked ships we’ve featured: The Whampoa, Durban Seaworld and Shekou Sea World.

Thanks: TuneS, Trident2d5, Dave & Me

Back in 1962 France launched a ship named Ancerville, which was purchased by the People’s Republic of China in 1973 and renamed Minghua. 10 years later the ship was permanently berthed at Shekou, Shenzhen, where she was refurbished and rebranded – this time as the hotel and entertainment complex, “Shekou Sea World“.

Since the Minghua was berthed at Sea World Plaza, the water which originally surrounded her has been reclaimed to allow construction of the golf course you can see here. The land reclamation continued southward, and today the coastline has been moved several hundred metres, leaving the Minghua completely landlocked.

Weirdly, this isn’t the only landlocked entertainment ship in China – there’s another one in Hong Kong. Are there any other countries that have converted a ship into a shopping centre?

Here’s a history of the ship which includes some good low-level shots.

Thanks to Nrupesh Soni.

Many believe that Shaolin Kung-Fu originated at the world-famous Shaolin Monastery but it is a little known fact that the nearby Shaolin Reservoir, is the true Kung-Fu mecca.

OK, I made that up – the monastery is in a low resolution area so we’re having to make do. The dam of the reservoir does have some good large type though – ‘Shao Lin Shui Ku’ translates from Mandarin as ‘Watch out, this place is swarming with monks who could easily kill you with one punch’…

Thanks: Jamie

A long time ago, way back when this website began, I thought that spotting submarines on satellite photographs would be very unlikely, what with them travelling underwater most of the time.

As it turned out there are a lot of submarines sitting about on land, but it has taken a while for someone to find a travelling submarine. This Ming class diesel submarine is on its way back to Lushun Naval Base where there’s a few more docked up.

Thanks to Bill Preston.