China offered a rare glimpse of its manned space flight centre on Wednesday, drawing back - if only slightly - the veil of secrecy around China's ambitions in outer space.
A nine-hour train ride and a four-hour drive from the nearest city, past rusted tanks and scrapped fighter jets that dot the barren desert of Gansu province, the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre is an oasis of verdant lawns and trees.
Foreign journalists got their first view of the huge complex on Wednesday, eerily empty despite being home to 15,000 people.
No rockets or space capsules - or even models of them - were on display.
A sprawling but abandoned mission control and a 95-metre (312-ft) tall assembly platform were seen briefly, but guides preferred to show off the gigantic swimming pool and an eggplant greenhouse.
The Jiuquan complex, one of the few remaining areas in China still off limits to foreigners, stands in stark contrast to its US counterpart, Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, which is easily accessible and open to tourists.
Still, the visit was not without highlights.
The tour stopped by a whitewashed-concrete dorm room - home to China's first man in space, Yang Liwei. The door bears his signature, now protected by a plastic casing.
Other parts of the complex were strictly off limits though. At the entrance to mission control, with its banks of computers and massive video screens, hung a sign that read in English: "No Visit".
The centre, dubbed "East Wind Space City", was the launch site last year of China's first manned spacecraft, Shenzhou V, which Yang piloted.
"It was spectacular," offered propaganda official Sun Qingquan, who witnessed the historic launch.
Built in 1958, the Jiuquan complex launched its first satellite in 1970.
China has indicated that its next manned flight, Shenzhou VI, may have two astronauts aboard.
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