“Run Fast!’ – The Forest Phenomenon

In the early 2000s, satellite technologies were still in their infancy. This prompted a photographer, Gao Shuxian, to climb a signal tower on top of a mountain in Sichuan province after noticing a strange conformation of trees while consulting satellite maps.

He noticed how some cedar trees were growing in a parallel radial alignment and how this pattern was also respected in terms of the greater intensity of the green of the foliage compared to the surrounding trees.

Perhaps for fun, perhaps because he truly believed, he distinguished three giant symbols formed by the trees that when joined resembled the Chinese character “犇” which means “run fast”.

It is still unclear what the symbol means, as there are other lines visible, which are not included in the character “run fast”. No exploration is underway and it remains a mystery whether the huge pattern is a natural formation, man-made or linked to antiquity. But if we consider the possibility that the symbol is man-made, then why would anyone put so much effort into this just to say “run fast”?