By Nic Robertson, CNN

The first thing I noticed were the bicycles. Those who weren't riding them were walking.

I was beginning to wonder if we'd taken a wrong turn. We were looking for China's super-secret space center.

Our four-hour drive from Jiuquan in China's west had taken us past picture postcard fields and fish ponds framed by looming snow-capped peaks, through an oasis of green and finally across the arid Gobi desert.

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