Secure Facillity near China's Jiuquan Launch Site

Secure Facillity near China's Jiuquan Launch Site (Google Maps)
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A towering guard tower, multiple layers of security barriers, covered train unloading areas and earth-covered bunkers indicate this is probably a sensitive site.
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cthippo picture
@ 2010-09-01 21:15:25
Hard to say what it is, but it's located only a few kilometers from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center so I would guess it might be related. There are two lines of blue railcars, many of them concealed under sheds. The sheds are too narrow to work on the cars, so they are probably for either shelter or concealment. If you look at the cars on the upper track near the building and compare them to the others on the same track, some of them appear to be open, with some sort of hatch the seems to swing towards the south. There are more of these blue railcars in the yard in town.

There are also two earth covered bunkers along the SW perimeter line a larger one to the north and a smaller one at the south corner of the secured area. Also, if you follow the road up the hill from the site there is another complex neat the top, which also shows signs of being a high security area. Due to the large amount of vegetation and extensive recreational facilities on the site I am inclined to think that it is a civilian, rather than military facility, which would also be consistent with the satellite launch center. Something I'm not seeing is any equipment for moving the contents of the cars into the bunkers or buildings, such as a large crane.

My best guess is that it may be a facility for handling solid fuel for launches at the space center. Other high security operations requiring specialized railcars could include mobile launchers for missiles, transportation of nuclear materials or warheads, or nuclear waste.

As a side note, if you look directly between this facility and the next green spot to the southwest you can see the remains of a large facility which has been bulldozed.