Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
1–10 of 391 posts
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#2Hi HN, OP here.
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!
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#3Hi HN, OP here. 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 ques…
Thanks Vincent for submitting, this is really fascinating.
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#4Hi HN, OP here. 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 ques…
Thanks Vincent for submitting, this is really fascinating.
Thank you! I will post the second part soon.
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#5404 does sound a bit like a nightmare posting, and God knows what the adults felt like. They probably couldn't say much. But children see things very differently. I forwarded this on to several people.
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#6Hi HN, OP here. 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 ques…
Well written, and interesting. I'm slightly surprised at the detailed memories you have from such an early age.
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#7Cool post!
Always interesting to read about people's lived realities that are completely different
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#8Hi HN, OP here. 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 ques…
Well written, and interesting. I'm slightly surprised at the detailed memories you have from such an early age.
Thank you! To me, my childhood memories are imprinted in my mind as vivid images. I'm simply using language to describe the pictures that I still see in my head.
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#9Cool post! Always interesting to read about people's lived realities that are completely different
Thank you! It was indeed a unique place to grow up. I'm planning to publish the next chapter shortly, so stay tuned.
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#10My father-in-law worked there as a programmer during the Cultural Revolution. There were always guards on the other side of the (locked) office door. Sometimes they’d shoot at random things to remind the nerds just who was in charge.
When I worked at Microsoft the biggest complaints were parking and the variety of subsidized foods at the cafeteria.