nuclear-news

In 1964, just five years after the command centre was set up, PLA scientists detonated China’s first atom bomb at a nearby testing site – a 22-kiloton blast that set the desert sky alight and sparked jubilant celebrations in Beijing.

Today, almost 50 years on, the top-secret facility where the test was partly conceived lies largely abandoned…….Extraordinarily, after years of neglect, plans are now afoot to transform this scruffy compound into a 300 million yuan (£30 million) “red tourism” destination. When completed it will boast a Communist-themed shopping precinct, a spa-like resort for weary soldiers and even paddocks where the offspring of visiting cadres can hone their horse-riding skills.

Ambitious blueprints for the theme park, which is intended to be completed for next year’s 50th anniversary of China’s atomic debut, foresee its future as “an internationally-acclaimed nuclear travelling site, a peace-themed scenic spot, a national patriotism education base … [and] Xinjiang’s number one destination for red tourism.”…….

China’s dramatic transformation from an impoverished agricultural weakling into a muscle-flexing member of the nuclear club began in 1955 when Mao unveiled plans to march into the “atomic age”.

……for Chairman Mao it was just the beginning. Three years later, in June 1967, his country moved up a rung in the arms race, becoming a thermonuclear power after a hydrogen bomb was tested at the same site. By the time Mao died in 1976, a further 17 tests had been carried out at Lop Nur, cementing China’s status as one of the five officially declared nuclear weapons states.

Testing, much of it by now underground, continued until 1996, when China signed the comprehensive test ban treaty……
But despite the hopes of the museum’s creators that it will become a world-renowned resort, the old habits of secrecy and suspicion die hard.

Despite the presence of other tourists, The Telegraph was expelled from the museum’s grounds by PLA soldiers who claimed the former base was “still a forbidden area”. Three unmarked cars carrying undercover security agents then tailed this newspaper for 48 hours and over 300 miles until it had left Xinjiang.

Zhang Tie, head of the local tourism bureau, declined to be interviewed and Prof Zhu said he did not know if foreigners would be allowed to holiday on Red Mountain….. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10433364/Chinas-top-secret-nuclear-base-to-be-revived-as-30m-Communist-Party-theme-park.html