China's first atomic bomb test (1964)

The dial of an aviation watch with a stopwatch hand.

Chinese soldiers sit on a hill before testing an atomic bomb on October 16, 1964. A cameraman in a protective suit stands next to the installed film equipment.

The stopwatch hand approaches 12:00. The signal lights on the control panel light up.

Scientists in a bunker prepare to take readings during the countdown.

The explosion of an atomic bomb at the Lop Nur test site on October 16, 1964, the mushroom cloud from the explosion.

Chinese servicemen welcome the successful test of the atomic bomb.

Drivers prepare a car for a trip to the explosion zone.

Distribution of individual dosimeters to servicemen dressed in protective suits.

Girls in protective suits drink water from a soldier's flask.

The helicopter pilot closes the cockpit door.

The helicopter taxis to the takeoff site.

Soldiers in protective suits and gas masks jump out of the back of a truck and run into a bunker.

Soldiers take control dosimetric instruments from the radiation-affected area.

Photographing instrument scales.

Soldiers take animals from the contaminated area - a dog, cages with rats - for subsequent measurement of the radioactive dose.

The dosimetrist team returns to the unit's location, their fellow soldiers greet them.

Zhou Enlai gives a speech.

Launching a weather balloon in the nuclear test zone.

Chinese military observers sit on a hillock at the testing ground.

Observers in a trench.

Explosion of an atomic bomb.

Effects of damaging factors of a nuclear explosion on equipment and buildings.

The "mushroom cloud" of an atomic explosion.