Underground Project 131

Underground Project 131 is a system of tunnels in China's Hubei province constructed in the late 1960s and the early 1970s to accommodate the Chinese military command headquarters in case of a nuclear war. The facility was never fully completed or used, and is currently open to visitors as a tourist attraction.Some of the signage at the site refers to the facility as Chengshuidong (= Clear Water Cave) Tourist Area (澄水洞旅游区).LocationThe Project 131 site is located in the Gaoqiao Township of the Xian'an District of the Xianning prefecture-level city in Hubei Province.It is about 15 km east of Xianning urban area, and 80 km south of central Wuhan.HistoryWith the increase of tensions between China and the Soviet Union in the late 1960s, the Chinese leaders deemed it prudent to construct a number of underground facilities to protect the country's population, military, as well as its command and control bodies, in case of a nuclear conflict. The best known of these facilities is Beijing's Underground City.On January 31, 1969, a decision was made to construct an underground command headquarters for the country's military; the codename "131" for the project stems from this date (01-31, in the usual way of ordering dates). The Chief of Staff of the People's Liberation Army General Staff Department, General Huang Yongsheng (黄永胜) himself was in charge of the construction.