Families relocated for telescope project see horizons expanded

Standing beneath the world's largest radio telescope, Yang Tianjue can still make out the site of his old house, which was demolished 10 years ago to make way for the telescope.

"There was a water cellar, and I planted an osmanthus tree beside it," said Yang, 42, pointing somewhere near the feed cabin of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, which began operations in September.

The telescope is located at the Dawodang depression, a natural karst basin below Kedu town in Guizhou province's Pingtang county. Dawodang was once inhabited by 12 families, who were relocated after the site was chosen for the telescope more than a decade ago.