How China's 816 Nuclear Military Plant Relates to Ithaka's Rock City

China's 816 Nuclear Military Plant is said to be the largest underground construction anywhere in the world and if you think Russia builds big then stand back because this one is gigantic.  (WIKI:  816 Nuclear Military Plant)

The underground base was designed to be able to tolerate thousands of tons of TNT explosives and magnitude 8 earthquakes.  The surface area of the cave is more than 104,000 square meters, and the total length of the tunnels is more than 20 kilometers.  The whole complex has a total of 18 artificial caves linked to each other, and has more than 130 roads and tunnels.  Automobiles such as cars are able to pass the roads and tunnels inside.  The largest artificial cave has a height of 79.6 meters, and is roughly equal to that of a 20-floor building.

- WIKI

Now that is one colossal cave construction and it's inside a mountain but it's not clear if any part of the construction was once a naturally-created cave.

Some have scoffed at the intentions of the Rock City Planning Commission toward building an advanced city underground but the Chinese did it already although not of the scope anticipated for Ithaka's Rock City but it's sure making one outstanding start toward it.

The bunker was built in 1966 when China was increasing its national defense, infrastructure and technology industries.  It was designed to withstand thousands of tons of explosives and earthquakes. More than 60,000 soldiers were involved in its construction, at least 100 of whom died in the process, the Telegraph reports.

It was built to create plutonium-239. Luckily, the bunker was never used for nuclear testing as China abandoned its plan in 1984, so it’s perfectly safe to explore China’s latest tourist attraction.  The 816 Nuclear Military Plant has been kitted out with neon light installations and sounds, and features a nuclear science center.  (RT:  China’s secret Cold War-era nuclear bunker opens to public (VIDEO))

That's about it for the RT article but in this one you get a much better look at the inside of the cave.  (YouTube: China: World's largest man-made cave reveals its Cold War nuclear secrets)

The RCPC (Rock City Planning Commission) hears scoffers say it's so difficult but China did it with sixty-thousand soldiers so round up some soldiers and let's get cracking on it.  You know they don't do much now so let's get some useful work out of them.  We don't want any civilians contracted to the military since those ones only give speeches about what the other ones are doing and then nothing ever gets done.  We don't have time for Pentagon speed; we need this fast.


There is probably not much we will be able to discover about the techniques and machines used to bore out so much rock or, for that matter, what they did with all of the leftover rock which is something we have considered with the Rock City as well.  Once we have bored out all this rock for the Rock City then what will we do with it.  Among multiple others, that question remains pending.


Ed:  what's the big deal?  Why do this?

Well, I tell you what, Reluctant Roger, the world stinks, it does.  It smells like millions of cars, it smells like diesel fumes from millions of trucks, and it smells of all the crap we threw away and then chucked into a big pile to rot somewhere.  Witness Rumpke Mountain in Cincinnati, a trash dump which produces so much methane it routinely catches fire.  Now dat shit seriously stinks so we don't want that.

Ed:  oh, sure.  Down there we will become like those in the Victorian times when they used buckets of perfume but never bathed.  That sounds delightful.

You tell the Sniff Master that is not going to happen since we won't even allow smoking down there.

Ed:  no fucking smoking?  Do you want a revolution?

What revolution as they will run out of breath if they try to chase anything.  That's a non-revolt if ever I heard of one.

Ed:  not even the ganja?

Well, smoking the ganja has valid reason but it still stinks.

Ed:  heresy!  I like the smell of the ganja!

Tell you what, Saturated Sam, how about we ask Aunt Mildred how she likes the smell of the ganja?

Ed:  she loves the ganja.  It's not just for freaks anymore.

Well ... in any case, you take my point as there's someone or many out there who probably hate it so we can't have that.

Ed:  nothing is allowed if someone else may hate it?

That's not the position but we will take a severely dim view of doing things deliberately which we know will get people pissed off.  Therefore, we will provide the Ganja Greenhouse in the upper Entertainment region of the Rock City since that will be equipped with adequate ventilation to exhaust all fumes to the exterior and therefore prevent them from circulation within the Rock City.

Ed:  this is sounding like "A Boy and His Dog" in which the pretty people lived underground and seeing Jason Robards in make-up to look like some of some French court poof is not something which lifted my life.

One thing we know about the pretty people from underground in that movie ... they were good to eat and the boy's dog was satisfied so they stayed friends.  Too bad about the girl as she was pretty ... but she tasted good and taste outweighed pretty (burp).

We want real people down there but we don't want any stinky ass smoking.  Can I get a Hell Yeah??


Note:  here was dinner in "A Boy and His Dog:"

- Susanne Benton (from a different movie but unknown which one)