Wang Suide and his colleagues did not know that they had been working on an atomic bomb project until they saw the news on TV after the test was a success.
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"Every workshop was separated, some produced parts and some were in charge of assembly," Wang, a 76-year-old former soldier, told Xinhua News Agency half a century after China detonated its first atomic bomb.
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"China exploded an atomic bomb at 3 pm on Oct 16, 1964, thereby successfully carrying out its first nuclear test," a government news release at the time said.
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China became the fifth country to successfully detonate an atomic bomb, following the United States, the United Kingdom, the former Soviet Union and France.
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Wang now lives with more than 500 colleagues in Hefei, Anhui province, where many people who worked on the atomic bomb project were relocated after the State-owned Factory No 221 under the nuclear industry ministry was shut down in the early 1990s.
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"I love to read newspapers, watch documentaries and the military channel," said Wang, who also enjoys gardening.
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When he arrived with the first group of employees in 1958, "The weeds were taller than people, you could not even open your eyes when winds blew," he recalled.Â
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Wang Suide and his colleagues did not know that they had been working on an atomic bomb project until they saw the news on TV after the test was a success.
