Looking back at the Dongfeng Spirit

The Beijing News
September 26, 2008

The successful launch of Shenzhou 7 dominated today’s front pages, with most newspapers printing a photo of the rocket blasting off into the sky, or the three astronauts smiling and waving to the camera.

To commemorate the latest step forward for the space program, The Beijing News ran a special feature that included an article titled “Resist worldly temptations through the Dongfeng Spirit,” in which Liu Qinggui, former vice directer of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, describes life in the reclusive world of Space City. Here’s an excerpt:

On September 13, 1965, I was sent here with three other students from Harbin Industry University. The Second Guest House, the auditorium across the street, and the Public Security Bureau next to it were already present at the time. The street was just as wide, but not paved, and trees weren’t as dense as they are now. A lot of the construction was completed with the help of Soviet Union experts before they left.

I was 22 and had studied electrical measurement technology. I was the “study monitor” of my class, a student cadre. So were the three other students came with me: one vice monitor, one Youth League secretary, and one department Youth League associate. Not every student was so lucky to be chosen. And this place was confidential, so it didn’t want anyone who was less than the best.

Back then we all believed that the best job is the toughest one. Wherever the motherland needed you, that’s where you should go. When the class knew that I was chosen, they all envied me.

One day they sent someone to pick us up. When we were on the train, I asked him what our work unit did. He smiled and said, “You will know when you are there.”

I got the answer the day I arrived. The trainers told us that it was a comprehensive base to launch rockets and satellites. Then I was taught my first lesson there: confidentiality. The rule was to never ask about others’ work units did, and never tell them about your own working conditions.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center covers about 50,000 square kilometers in Inner Mongolia. Two townships and a county were moved to give space to the center. The total population of the Ejina county was 5,000, and 1,000 of them were evacuated. So the Ejina county made a big sacrifice and a big contribution.

There were eight locations that had been considered as possible sites for a satellite center but ultimately it was decided to build it here.

When it came to picking a name for the center, confidentiality was considered. We couldn’t just tell them where we were. But also we have to inform other countries of the launch location and orbital parameters; we couldn’t just tell them “China launched a satellite,” because that would be too general. We are in Ejina, but we couldn’t be named Ejina Launch Center because most people didn’t know where that was at all. We couldn’t be called Baotou Center or Hohot Center either, because those cities were far enough away that no one would believe us.

Finally it was decided to use the name Jiuquan. It’s a relatively well-known city but it’s not too close to the center, so there’s no problem with confidentiality. That’s the name we still use today.

Geographically we are in Inner Mongolia, but our post code, food provisions, and education for our children are provided by Gansu Province, where the “real” Jiuquan city is.

…

The center is like a small, independent Special Zone. It is not attached to Gansu Province, or to Inner Mongolia. We have our own “government,” called the “social service department,” which has a Finance Bureau, Taxation Bureau, and Public Security Bureau. They are all manned by the people who live in the “Space City.”

The city has a bank too, which is a branch of Gansu’s Industrial and Commercial Bank. The bank only takes in deposit money and doesn’t loan. There was an Inner Mongolian bank wanted to open its own outfit here. It didn’t succeed.

At one time, there was no store in the Space City. We brought in some stores from Jiuquan.

The Public Security Bureau has two affiliated police stations here. It doesn’t report to Lanzhou’s Public Security Bureau.

The city used to be a compound called Huxi New Village, which can still be found in some old maps. It has developed to the size of a city, and we decided to name it Dongfeng Space City.

Why it was called Dongfeng? If you see the old movies in which people talk through a walky-talky: Changjiang, Changjiang, this is Yellow River. It is a code name we used in correspondence, so is it the name of China’s first missile which was launched here. We calls this area Dongfeng. We are Dongfeng people, and our spirit is the Dongfeng spirit. The city is Dongfeng Space City.

The spirit is very important to anyone who settles down and works here. Many people who spend time at home find it hard to adapt to the environment again. Why? The outer world is far more exciting.

In Beijing, streets are wider than ours, parks are bigger, and even the people are prettier. But whatever you enjoy in Beijing, you cannot find here. In Beijing, even if you don’t have money, at least you can go and take a look at Tian’anmen. Here, it used to be only the moon and stars. Now, there’s television.

The most difficult was finding a wife. Some of our young men had girlfriends back home. The young men were bright, well-educated, and good-looking, but they could not go back and get married. Of course, this is not the case all the time.

So for many people, when they returned from home, they would have difficulty adjusting to the harsh environment. Some of them even developed mental problems.

Space City did a lot to help. For example, it recruited more women during those years when people couldn’t find spouses. We were always urging our superiors to lower the standards for women recruits. For example, we said that those who already had a girlfriend at university should be allowed to bring their girlfriend here.