BEIJING (Reuters) - A team of Chinese scientists is to head out to the far west of the country to investigate a mystery pyramid that local legend says is a launch tower left by aliens from space, Xinhua news agency said Wednesday.

 
Nine scientists would probe origins of the 165 to 198-foot tall structure -- dubbed "the ET relics" -- in the western province of Qinghai this month, the agency said.

It sits on Mount Baigong, has three caves with triangular openings on its facade and is filled with red-hued pipes leading into the mountain and a nearby salt water lake, Xinhua said. Rusty iron scraps, pipes and unusually shaped stones were scattered around the inhospitable and largely uninhabited area, it said.

A research fellow at a nearby observatory of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said the theory the pyramid was created by extra terrestrials was "understandable and worth looking into," it added

Xinhua did not report any details on the age of the structure, or any other possible explanations for it.

[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&ncid=753&e=1&u=/nm/20020619/sc_nm/china_aliens_dc_1[/url]


Its strange that the Chinese would give any credibility to such a story.[(:|)]
Hummmm!

If they can convince gullible Western tourists to come pay $500 for a tour of the area, why not?

Maybe not strange.  The Soviets also did a lot of research on UFO's.