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Friday 17 March 2017
WHAT A BLAST
Incredible pictures show inside a TOP SECRET Chinese nuclear bunker built to make atomic bombs in the Cold War which is now a tourist attraction
The cavernous 816 Nuclear Military Engineering installation in Chongqing, South-west China is the largest network of man-made tunnels on the planet
Getty Images Incredible pictures show inside a formerly top secret military bunker in China built to make nuclear bombs
INCREDIBLE pictures show inside a top secret nuclear bunker in China that was built to produce plutonium for atomic bombs.The cavernous 816 Nuclear Military Engineering installation in Chongqing, South-west China, was constructed at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s and 1970s.
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The top secret 816 Nuclear Military Engineering installation was built in Chongqing, South-west China, in the 1960s and 1970s
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The facility is the biggest known network of man-made tunnels on the planet, stretching for more than 12 miles
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The bunker was built to manufacture plutonium secretly to advance China’s nuclear programme during the Cold War Nowadays the site is decommissioned and has opened its doors to tourists.
Amazing snaps show inside the vast corridors and chambers that make up the sprawling underground complex.
The facility covers well over one million square feet – the equivalent of 14 football pitches –with a volume equal to 600 Olympic-sized pools.
It has the world’s largest known network of man-made tunnels, stretching for more than 12 miles beneath the mountains.
Surrounded by darkness and damp concrete, visitors are transported back to the Cold War.
Pan Ya, tourist in her thirties from a neighbouring town who visited with her parents said: “It’s very impressive and mysterious.
“[My parents] had heard about this place for a long time but were never able to come in.”
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The network of tunnels are carved into a mountainside in the lush green hills of Chongqing, South-west China
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Some 60,000 soldiers toiled day and night for 17 years to carve and blast the bunker out of the rock
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816 Nuclear Military Engineering installation has been declassified and is now open to tourists
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Visitors to 816 can now watch a light show projected upon a huge wall as music thunders, along with other exhibitions Some 60,000 soldiers toiled day and night in dangerous conditions for 17 years to build the secretive facility beneath the region’s lush green mountains.
Construction on the vast site began in 1967 – three years after China successfully tested its first atomic weapon – as the country hurried to catch up its Cold War rivals the United States and Soviet Union.
The facility cost 80billion yuan (£9.4billion) to build but, ironically, no nuclear material ever passed through it due to a dramatic shift in developments above ground.
China established diplomatic ties with the US in 1979 before tension with the Soviet Union also eased.
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Badges (bottom) of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong are among the exhibits now on show at the former nuclear bunker
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Exhibitions on show for tourists at the site now include a model of the first ever Chinese-made atomic bomb
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The tunnels cover well over one million square feet, with a combined volume equal to 600 Olympic-sized swimming pools
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Surrounded by darkness and damp concrete, visitors are transported back to the height of the Cold War Although near completion, the site was judged to have no further use and was abandoned in 1984.
Declassified in 2002, it was finally opened to Chinese tourists in 2010 and began welcoming foreign visitors at the end of 2016.
More than 300,000 Chinese tourists have since visited – with just under 100 foreigners making the trip as of last month.
Just 10 per cent of the corridors, massive halls and control rooms are open to the public.
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Amazing snaps show inside the vast corridors and chambers that make up the sprawling underground complex
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A tourist examines one of the exhibits in the declassified 816 Nuclear Military Engineering facility
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Former soldiers who helped dig the tunnels spoke of armed police on guard at the entrance to the secretive facility
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One tourist said her parents, who live nearby, said they always knew something was being built here but were not sure of what Visitors can watch a light show projected upon a huge wall as music thunders, along with various other exhibits – including a model of the first Chinese A-bomb.
Site manager Zheng Zhihong said: “We’re not promoting nuclear weapons, quite the opposite.
“I hope that one day the nuclear powers will say, ‘Stop, let’s all count to three and destroy our arsenals’.”
The rebirth of 816 as a tourist attraction comes as little comfort to the thousands of troops who endured hellish conditions in blasting out the site’s corridors and halls.
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A sitting area for tourists in the 816 Nuclear Military Engineering installation in the mountains of Fuling district, Chongqing
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Construction on the vast site began in 1967 – three years after China successfully tested its first atomic weapon
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One visiting tourist from nearby in China said the vast facility was ‘very impressive and mysterious’
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Ex-soldier Chen Huaiwen, now 70, recalled: "A colleague would detonate the explosives. Then we'd dig away at the rock with a machine. It could have collapsed at any minute."
Officially, 76 people died in the process – but tour guides and former workers insist the number is far too low.
Chen added: "We'd sleep several to a bed, on straw mattresses.
"It was a furnace in the summer and you wouldn't get to sleep before 1am. "
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A tour guide in costume prepares to enter the 816 Nuclear Military Engineering installation
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Former soldiers who helped to build the tunnels said many suffered from health problems from the dust and chemicals
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Official figures show some 76 people died building the bunker, but many claim this figure is too low
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One ex-soldier said the bunker was 'like a furnace in summer' and troops couldn't sleep until 1am because of the heat He continued: "Armed police kept watch outside while we worked on the construction. It was top-secret, entry was forbidden.
"At the time, ordinary people in the area only knew there was some project – they did not know what was being worked on."
The food was basic: rice and beans, with meat thrown in twice a week.
Chen said: "Many got lung problems because of the dust – and that's without taking into account the toxic emissions from explosives, the machine smoke and the foul air."
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No nuclear material ever passed through the secretive bunker, despite it costing £9.4billion to build
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Ex-soldier Chen Huaiwen, now 70, said the tunnels 'could have collapsed at any minute' as he and colleagues burrowed through the rock
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Declassified in 2002, 816 Nuclear Military Engineering was finally opened to Chinese tourists in 2010
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Foreign visitors have been allowed to come and see the attraction since last year, but less than 100 have so far come Tears welled up in the eyes of Li Gaoyun, another ex-serviceman who worked on 816, as he viewed old photos displayed in the tunnels on his first visit back in 42 years.
Li said many of the soldiers who toiled at 816 now receive no pensions or benefits from the Chinese government, despite the enormous sacrifices they made for their country.
Li said: "A lot of the former workers have no pension, no social security. They don't have enough to live on.
"They owe us that. We gave our blood, our sweat – and our youth." (The Sun, Uk)
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