My Name Is Bond. James Bond.

The final shore excursion was a choice between a cultural experience of a tea ceremony, a market, a face-switching thing, or going to an unfinished nuclear fission reactor built into a hill.

Carol chose the former, and I chose the latter.  We both were happy with our choices.  She stayed at an event right in the city of Fuling, while those of us who chose the nuclear engineering facility had, of course, an hour bus ride.

It was extremely cool.  A cross between a James Bond movie setting and an episode of The Americans (if it was ever set or filmed in China).  First, there were huge propaganda posters on the outside walls of the visitor center.  Then, in the middle of the mountain is this huge gate and tunnel.

It is the 816 underground nuclear engineering facility.  Meant to be top-secret at the time, 60,000 workers were involved in the construction.  When the site was started in 1966, China’s relations with the Soviet Union were starting to sour, and the Chinese were also worried about the threat of nuclear attack from the U.S.

It is the largest manmade underground tunnel structure in the world (only part is currently open to tourists).  Started in 1964, it was abandoned in 1982 as relations with the US took a turn for the better.  It was only 85% ready when abandoned, so no nuclear fission was done.  Opened to tourism in 2010, it is one of the coolest places I’ve ever been.

We were a small group overall, but everyone loved it.  Dmitry and Olga, who lived 50 miles from Chernobyl when it went bad in 1986, were busy critiquing the site.  Very interesting to hear their perspective.

It had long tunnels, twelve levels, and rickety stairs that the bad guy, upon getting shot, would have toppled forward (even though shot in the chest) and fallen off in the Bond movie.  They’ve jazzed it up with neon lights in some places.  The total length of the tunnels is more than 20 kilometers.

We were driven by golf cart from the entrance deep into the entry room, half into the mountain.  Then, we toured by foot.  There was a room with row upon row of gauges – each of them costing 10x more than the average family made in China back then. 

Alas, the computer room was closed for renovations (one of the computers is from the US – how’s that for irony!).  We walked right through the reactor (it had never been tested, so no nuclear material ever made it – so we were safe.  So they say.

It definitely is a throwback to the Cold War.  It’s amazing that it has gone from a huge military project to a tourist destination!