Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even in america
name one
"Club Fed"
Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
141–150 of 391 posts
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
As often as not, these days, when someone online criticizes the West, it's for something absurd (eg: Churchill interfering with Hitler's continental invasions, or America using the word 'regime' when discussing Iran). Obviously, other times the criticism is wholly justified. What "dominant Western narratives" apply here? I'm not going to bicker. I'm just curious.
There's no need to be defensive. We are largely westerners on a western website studying history from a western perspective. There's nothing wrong with that, it's natural. It just means we lose some understanding of events if that's the only side we know. OP is performing a service by documenting first-person history, and doesn't need to justify why it's important. It's important.
I'm still curious what specific narratives you had in mind when you said "dominant Western narratives"
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#143Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
You caught me! Yes, I am using AI to assist with the translation. My IELTS score is 7.5, but my writing band is 6.0. I write my thoughts and comments in Chinese first and then use AI to translate them. The entire article was also translated from my original Chinese manuscript.
Tip, I’d rather read slightly bad grammar due to simple translation than AI assisted interpretation of what you are wanting to say.call me old fashioned I guess
Why? Would a incorrect but literal translation be closer or further from what the author is trying to communicate?
I've been seeing this take on HN a lot recently, but when it comes to translation current AI is far, far superior to what we had previously with Google Translate, etc.
If the substack was written in broken English there's no way it would even be appearing on the front page here, even less so if it was written in Chinese.
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#145>> Witnessing such scorched-earth containment makes the modern definition of nuclear power as the ‘cleanest energy’ completely incomprehensible to me. It's called bad governing. To connect nuclear "not clean" with such bad governing is bit much.
I don't know about "bad governing". It sounds more like a rigorous containment policy when nuclear technology was at its infancy in China. (Regulations are written in the blood of your predecessors - https://old.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/ud3lt4/lpt_osh... ). It is also about preventing accident leakage of information and preserving secrecy. For e.g. In the 1970s, India learnt that Pakistan was working to create a nuclear weapon when Indian agents in Pakistan collected hair samples of Pakistan's nuclear scientist, from a barber shop where they got their hair cut - traces of plutonium radiation were found in the hair samples, and Pakistan's nuclear weapons program got exposed.
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Since you mention a trip to Beijing, I wonder what the security precautions were to keep the secret base secret. I assume visitors from other cities would need to apply for a travel permit similar to the one still required for some border areas in Xinjiang and Tibet, but were there also restrictions on people leaving?
That’s a great question. In the early days, physical travel permits were indeed the norm. But the most effective 'security precaution' was psychological. We had secrecy education (保密教育) starting as early as primary school. We were taught from a very young age that our city didn't exist to the outside world, and we simply didn't talk about it. But when I was a kid ,I didn't know anything about 404.
Given those precautions and your training, was it hard to share about it? Aren't you worried about the Chinese government punishing you for sharing?
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#147What's the deal with AI here in the comments?
You caught me! Yes, I am using AI to assist with the translation. My IELTS score is 7.5, but my writing band is 6.0. I write my thoughts and comments in Chinese first and then use AI to translate them. The entire article was also translated from my original Chinese manuscript.
Please use actual machine translation systems, not generative AI.
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
You caught me! Yes, I am using AI to assist with the translation. My IELTS score is 7.5, but my writing band is 6.0. I write my thoughts and comments in Chinese first and then use AI to translate them. The entire article was also translated from my original Chinese manuscript.
I'd rather read something in "bad English" than laundered through generative artificial intelligence tools.
Highly doubt this. Have you read a translated book? Are you looking for literal translations or a translation from someone who's an expert in both languages and makes subjective adjustments based on their experience?
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#149What are the coordinates? Been looking for it around 100km west of jiayuguan but I can't seem to get it right
DMS: 40° 10′ 48.67″ N, 97° 16′ 36.49″ E Decimal: 40.180185, 97.276804 Geo URI: geo:40.180185,97.276804 https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?language=en¶ms...
[deleted]
Re: Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
#150What are the coordinates? Been looking for it around 100km west of jiayuguan but I can't seem to get it right
Chinese Wikipedia https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%98%E8%82%83%E7%9F%BF%E5... has the coordinates. It's a lot closer to 玉门 than to 嘉峪关.
Edit: nevermind
I don't know if those coordinates are correct. They seem to be the exact coordinates of Jiayuguan City [0], but then the article also says that the 404 site is located "100 km west of Jiayuguan City," with living areas later relocated to Jiayuguan. So I think the article authors just put the Jiayuguan coords there.