Underground Project 131

The Project 131 site is located in the town of Gaoqiao (高桥镇) of the Xian'an District of the Xianning prefecture-level city in Hubei Province.

With 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.

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.

[2] An upscale hotel and conference facility was created above the ground, while the tunnel system was turned into a tourist attraction.

Unlike the pavilions and villas, the tunnel is still considered a military project and therefore closed to non-Chinese visitors (April 2009).