China to open nuclear test site to tourists
China is planning to turn a former nuclear testing site into a tourist attraction.
According to the country’s Xinhua news agency, China will spend approximately CNY6 million (US$950,000) to develop tourism at the Malan Base, in the northwest region of Xinjiang, where China developed its first atomic bomb.
Laboratories and dormitories used by the nuclear scientists, as well as a 300-metre anti-air strike tunnel, will be all be renovated and put on display.
China detonated its first atomic bomb in the desert near Malan on 16 October 1964, and an estimated 45 nuclear tests were conducted at the facility until 1996.