Sixty years ago, in the remote Lop Nur desert in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, China successfully detonated its first atomic bomb, code-named “Miss Qiu”.
The test, on October 16, 1964, and the fission chain reaction it triggered, melted the top half of a 120-metre (394 feet) high iron tower. It was a pivotal moment in China’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
