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Vincent_Yan404on Growing Up in "404 Not Found" (Part II): The Vanishing Nuclear City

As far as I know, yes. The most critical component—the Uranium-235 core—was finished in 404. In Part I, I mentioned a legendary machinist named Yuan Gongpu. He was tasked with the final precision turning of the core on a lathe.

It’s famously known as the 'Final Three Cuts.' Because the material was so rare and the stakes so high, he had to complete the final shaping in three extremely delicate stages. He achieved a precision of 0.001mm (often described as 1/80th of a human hair) entirely by hand. This earned him the nickname 'Yuan the Three-Cuts' (Yuan Sandao) in our hometown history

Vincent_Yan404on Growing Up in "404 Not Found" (Part II): The Vanishing Nuclear City

Thank you for sharing that. Our hometowns were built as means to an end—political or military missions—rather than places meant to last for people. To us, it was our entire world; to the state, it was just a tool. That’s why our personal memories and that sense of disorientation are never truly valued by the powers that be. We are left to wander the ruins of a history that has already moved on.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing Up in "404 Not Found" (Part II): The Vanishing Nuclear City

Thanks for linking the first part. I really appreciate the support from this community.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing Up in "404 Not Found" (Part II): The Vanishing Nuclear City

I promised a few people yesterday I’d share Part II today.

First, thank you to Tom (Moderator) and this community for the incredible reception of Part I.

My English writing is still limited (IELTS 6.0), so Part II is also a sentence-by-sentence AI translation. This is an extended version. I added a bit more details that weren't in my original Chinese posts.

Here is the original Chinese version I wrote https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/22190111. You can see the raw narrative before it was translated.

Thank you for reading a story from a non-native speaker trying to bridge the gap with tools.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

Update: Part 2 is out now on my Substack. I will submit it as a separate post on HN later today once this thread cools down, to avoid spamming the front page. But for those asking, here is the direct link: https://substack.com/home/post/p-182824207

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

I published this in China, they didn't bother me, so I hope it's fine here.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

I asked AI where should I publish my article, it said Medium at first. I submitted to illustration and 10 days later, the article is still pending review right now. So I ask AI again, what should I do? It says HN is the best but also toughest, it's hard to show in the front page. After I tried, I think I kinda made it.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

You can see 553 条评论，And click “最新”

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

The first comment can answer your question, go and check whether I am OP https://www.zhihu.com/people/yan-mou-ren-63/posts

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

Cause I've never thought it before, and now I'm in Canada,I want to try whether this can be related in western country.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

Thank you for your kindness,I feel exciting to communicate with people from different culture.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

Wow It's amazing,I really don't know this before.Thanks for sharing!

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

Thank you for liking it!

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

Thank you so much!

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

It is no coincidence. In a secluded and tightly-knit community like Plant 404, an extreme event like this would immediately spread throughout the entire area.

The author you mentioned is Li Yang. We know each other, and our parents know each other as well. He published his piece before I did. Since the person involved was his classmate, he was able to provide more first-hand details, such as the part about riding a bicycle to see that boy.

When we had safety education at school, the teachers would still use examples from twenty years ago—like someone getting hit by a car. This is how it was in the plant: once something happened, people would keep talking about it for twenty years.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

It's published in China many years ago, and it's nonfiction. I just used AI translate to English. And can you make up something to cater HN, like nuclear power stuff?

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

I ate dinner with this author, our parents know each other.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

The first version was translated by google and it's wordy, sometimes doesn't make sense, so I used Gemini this time. I sent the first version to many people and no one could finish it ;)

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

It's a coincidence.It’s defined both a digital void and my childhood home is the kind of irony.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

I thought 418 was something similar to 404, and made a stupid joke. Sorry again.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

Thank you so much! I feel LLM is perfect to making web slop, that's really a pity that the smartest thing is doing the worst job.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

And how did you know I sold storytelling course before, did I mention it somewhere?

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

When I first write this in Chinese, they didn't censor anything, just let me published without question.The first guy wrote this been called by phone, they said it's secret, but nothing happened later. Before I published here I add some part, for example, the context of the famine, in Chinese version, people know what I talked about.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

Thank you so much! I hope LLM didn't ruin the vibe, so I edited many times, but still, english is not my first language, so it probably still "looks like AI". I will try my best and I will post part 2 on Monday.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

I don't think I'm criticizing Western narratives. This is simply my personal perspective and experience growing up there.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

Yes I used AI to translate. You said "Specific parts that sounds implausible",and the second part is more unbelievable, I can only guarantee it's nonfiction.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

Thank you! I live in Toronto right now.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

Thank you！Here is the original link https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20240110A03FKJ00

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

It might be, but it's confidential, so I think it's hard to do such things in China.

Vincent_Yan404on Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert

As far as I know, it didn't happen in 404, cause factory area and living area are split. 我们厂区里好像没有，因为生活区和生产区是分开的。