The emergence of a giant concrete ship in the unlikely setting of Wuhan is the latest sign that Beijing's desire for aircraft carriers is fast moving towards a full-blown production programme.
The carrier mock-up comes complete with flight deck, ramp and tower, all atop what looks like a low-rise brick office building. A fighter plane and helicopter, draped in dark cloth, are parked on the blue-tiled deck.
The Wuhan ship will not be taking to the seas any time soon. But some day in the future, China's first homegrown aircraft carrier will sail out of Shanghai's Changxing Shipyard and into the Pacific, loaded with jet fighters and protected by state-of-the-art support ships and submarines.
Quite when that will be is the subject of increasing scrutiny by foreign military analysts and scholars across the region, who believe that a host of technological hurdles remain. Estimates that the first locally built carrier will be operational in five years are fluid at best.
The construction of the Wuhan mock-up is among several recent moves generating interest among those following the nation's carrier plans. Other developments include the re-fit of the tower of the secondhand Soviet-era carrier Varyag at Dalian . There is also tightened security around the virtually completed Changxing Shipyard.
This month, an official ship-building institute announced Beijing's plans to build a new generation of large destroyers that would be vital to support a carrier programme - which in turn is the key to transforming China into a genuine blue-water naval power.