The National Development and Reform Commission’s 2021 account names the original science building, library and cinema among eleven representative structures at the former base in Xihai. It also lists the underground command center, second factory and the station associated with loading the first atomic bomb for transport. The buildings belonged to a working network: research, reading, assembly, production and command occupied distinct sites on Jinyintan Grassland. The names in the report let readers picture the range of rooms and facilities behind the base’s history.
From the journal
The Buildings Left by a Research Base
Science buildings, a library and a cinema are among the structures named in a 2021 account of the former base at Xihai. Their preservation gives the research complex a visible architectural record.
A list of working places
Repair as a way of keeping history legible
The same account describes repairs to representative buildings and selected installations, as well as an upgrade to the Qinghai Atomic City Memorial Hall. The revised exhibition used fuller text and images and added physical objects. A building and a gallery preserve different kinds of evidence: one retains the dimensions and arrangement of a former work site; the other brings documents and objects into an interpretive sequence. Together, the named facilities show how the research base depended on more than laboratories alone.
