I grew up in "Factory 404," a secret nuclear industrial city in the Gobi Desert that officially didn't exist on public maps. This is a memoir about my childhood there.

It was a surreal place: we had elite scientists living next to laborers, a zoo in the middle of the desert, and distinct "communist" welfare, all hidden behind a classified code.

This is Part 1 of the story. I'm happy to answer any questions about life in a Chinese nuclear base!

It's definitional in Gwh of productive, usable energy produced per tonne of damage to health. It also demands a lot of rigour against other forms of embedded energy regarding fugitive gas leaks, unassociated third party injury which is usually an externality. And of course it predates the rise in general efficiency of solar and wind and may no longer be true unless very specific criteria are applied like constancy.

But, awful though the trail of tears is behind example contamination events, including Chernobyl and Three Mile Island and Fukishima, counting death in coal or oil demands recognition of a huge problem in life shortening from contamination and injury at large in the whole cycle mine to chimney.

More people died from translocation consequences than direct nuclear radiation consequences in all three of the above. Not to minimise their deaths but if you move a million people in a rush, some die who otherwise would have lived.

"Modern" here is > 1949 and < "whenever wind and solar and batteries got so good"

Visiting my grandparents I remember we had to go through a sort of border control to get there.

My mom told stories of how the government would change the asphalt every year in that city to cover the nuclear dust.

Line 418 was the most profitable. When the post office opened, the clerk assumed “418” was the town name, not the factory line number. By the time anyone noticed, mail was flowing, checks were signed, and no one wanted to correct the federal government. The factory closed in the 1950s. The town shrank but remained oddly proud of its name. Residents leaned into it without explaining it.

I don't mind AI translation at all. The style comes off as a bit weird indeed, but I just took it off as a style I'm not used to because it comes from a different culture than mine. I wouldn't mind much the naysayers, I'd like to see them posting something in chinese and see how they'd like it ;)

I really enjoyed the writing style actually, all these different anectodes condensed in shorter sentences, without fluff or trying to connect them in a single narrative. Maybe this is not the correct way to put it, but I'm also not a native English speaker nor I have any classical training in writing.

Yours is the first substack I ever subscribed to and can't wait to read part two. It actually pushed me to start writing some of my childhood experiences.

Thank you again. Absolutely fascinating.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_city

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_townlet

When I worked at Microsoft the biggest complaints were parking and the variety of subsidized foods at the cafeteria.

I wonder if this site in the Gobi ended up having the same problems with radioactive contamination from accidents and unethical experiments that Hanford and Mayak had?

1. How did the classification level affect everyday social interactions? Were there topics that were implicitly off-limits even within the city among residents?

2. You mentioned the zoo in the middle of the desert - what drove that decision? Was it purely for morale/quality of life, or were there other factors?

3. Looking back now with perspective, how do you think growing up in such a unique environment shaped your worldview compared to peers who grew up in "normal" Chinese cities?

Also really interested in hearing about the technical side if you're comfortable sharing - what was the general sentiment among the scientists and engineers about their work? Did they talk about it as "nation-building" or was it more pragmatic?

Looking forward to Part 2!

Also curious about the zoo. A zoo in the middle of the Gobi Desert for a city that doesn't exist. What happens to the animals when a place like that shuts down?

After all, HTTP was invented at CERN, a nuclear research institute. Staff there would presumably have been aware of “404” and probably made jokes about the fact that it didn’t exist…

It's called bad governing. To connect nuclear "not clean" with such bad governing is bit much.

Always interesting to read about people's lived realities that are completely different

I think that I see the word "Coke" in the picture of you holding the hammer.

Was this for Coca Cola?

Am I reading too much into this or does China have a culture of competition which involves mocking those you deem below you even for the most shallow reasons?

I am interersted in how did China convince those people to move to this "harsh and painful" city. I assume with their top skill, they had options to live anywhere they want, and a lot ot places want them.

The "stick" does not always work, you have to use "carrot" too.

I am glad to know there was a third place besides USA and USSR preparing nuclear stuff during the cold war.

...and the absolutely unhinged reaction of many commenters to AI use is rich in sociological insight. i have the impression that native english speakers feel somehow threatened... but in general, it's rich for the HN crowd huffing and puffing about AI translation after having turned the world in the most inhuman technology mediated thing, way before AI...

Thats a bit much, isnt it? This was in the early days of their nuclear progress, of course at the time it wasnt going to be a linear, completely efficient and sanitized. Kind of a weird comment, nothing develops perfectly while its development chugs along

I smell cooked