Once Secret, China’s Atomic City Opens Its Doors to History

On the Jinyintan grasslands in Qinghai province, old factory buildings stand quietly against the vast plateau sky.

Visitors now walk through workshops and sites that were once strictly off-limits, viewing historical photographs, equipment and documents and stepping into reconstructed scenes that recreate how China’s early nuclear workers lived and worked.

More than six decades ago, such access would have been unthinkable. The site was once Base 221, China’s first nuclear weapons research and development base and one of the country’s most closely guarded locations.

Construction of the project, code-named 221, began in August 1958. Scientists, engineers, technicians and construction workers arrived from across the country on the Jinyintan grasslands, more than 3,000 meters above sea level, to build laboratories, factories, roads, railways and other facilities.

By June 1964, the base was largely completed. On Oct 16 that year, China successfully detonated its first atomic bomb. Three years later, the country successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb.

Secrecy shaped life at the base. Workers could not disclose where they were or what they were doing, and many families knew little about the work their relatives were carrying out on the remote plateau.

Lin Jiuxing’s father, Lin Xuerong, was among the first generation of workers who arrived at Base 221 in 1958. “They were soldiers without uniforms,” Lin said, recalling his father’s generation.

The people who came to 221 had very different roles. They included prominent scientists such as Wang Ganchang, Guo Yonghuai and Deng Jiaxian, as well as engineers, technicians, drivers, logistics staff and construction workers.

While some carried out calculations and research, others built factories, poured concrete, laid roads, transported materials and kept the sprawling base running.

For many, the years spent at 221 forged a lifelong bond with the place. Lin belongs to the second generation.Born in Shandong province in 1964, he later moved to Qinghai with his mother and two younger sisters to join his father. He attended the base’s technical school and later worked in its transportation department, where his father had also served.

For Lin and many other children of the first generation, 221 was not simply a workplace connected with a national scientific program. It was where they grew up. 

After the base completed its historical mission, the site gradually emerged from secrecy. In 1995, it was formally decommissioned and transferred to local authorities. Its former residential area became today’s Xihai town, while factories and other facilities were preserved as historical and industrial heritage.

On May 26, 2009, the Atomic City Memorial Hall officially opened to the public. Lin was among those involved in designing the memorial hall, helping turn the memories of his parents’ generation into a story that could be seen and understood by visitors.

Former workers also contributed photographs, personal belongings and recollections. Their memories helped reconstruct workplaces and scenes from a period when much of what happened at the base had been kept secret.

Following a major renovation, the memorial hall reopened in 2021 with multimedia panoramas, dynamic projections, reconstructed work and living spaces, and historical artifacts that offer visitors a more immersive experience.

Outside, the “596 Memorial Corridor” carries the names of more than 30,000 people who once worked at Base 221. Famous scientists appear alongside thousands of workers whose names are little known beyond their families and former colleagues — a reminder of the many different people involved in building and operating the base.

Lin Jiuxing reminisces about his previous workplace

For Lin, the history is also a deeply personal one. His father died in 1983 and was buried there. When the family later left, Lin’s mother chose not to move her husband’s grave and told her children that she hoped to return to the same place one day.

After she died in 2017, her ashes were brought back the following year and buried beside her husband. Lin has said he hopes to return there himself when his life comes to an end.

His family’s connection to the nuclear industry has now extended into a third generation. Lin said his child also works in a field related to the industry.

From a father who arrived on the grasslands in 1958, to a son who grew up at 221 and later helped preserve its history, and then to a third generation entering the nuclear sector, the family reflects a story repeated in different forms among many families associated with the base.

Today, another group is forming its own connection with the Atomic City — visitors. Despite being about 105 kilometers from Xining, the provincial capital, the Atomic City Memorial Hall received about 346,000 visits in 2025, up 10 percent year-on-year.

Lin said large numbers of people make the journey every day, including tourists, students and study groups. They now enter places that members of his father’s generation could not even tell outsiders existed.

A site once defined by secrecy has become a destination for tourism, education and remembrance, where visitors can walk through old factories, encounter reconstructed scenes and hear stories from those who lived there.

For Lin, few things illustrate the transformation more clearly. When his father arrived at Base 221, he could not tell others where he was. More than six decades later, his son stands on the same land, telling visitors its story.

文字 | 王予时 郑斯予

图片 | 王予时

排版 | 王予时