Nuclear testing so secret workers didn't know

Wang Suide and his colleagues did not know that they had been working on an atomic bomb project until they saw the news on TV after the test was a success.

"Every workshop was separated, some produced parts and some were in charge of assembly," Wang, a 76-year-old former soldier, told Xinhua News Agency half a century after China detonated its first atomic bomb.

"China exploded an atomic bomb at 3 pm on Oct 16, 1964, thereby successfully carrying out its first nuclear test," a government news release at the time said.