42°15′35″N 112°45′22″E / 42.25972°N 112.75611°E / 42.25972; 112.75611

The first edition of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Military Tattoo (seen here) took place at Zhurihe in 2014.

The Zhurihe Training Base (Chinese: 朱日和训练基地), also called the Zhurihe Combined Tactics Training Base,[1] is a People's Liberation Army (PLA) base in Inner Mongolia, China,[2] founded in 1957.[3] The largest military base in China, Zhurihe covers 1,066 square kilometres (412 sq mi), has its own hospital, and for over 60 years[4] has hosted multiple mock training areas for conducting urban war games.[5] General Secretary and Chairman Xi Jinping commemorated the 90th anniversary of the PLA with a military parade at Zhurihe.[6] The PLA has called Zhurihe their "most modernized training base" and say it is the largest in Asia.[7] Comparisons have been made between Zhurihe and Fort Irwin in California, United States.[5]

Zhurihe is home to the 81st Army Group.[3] The base is overseen by the PLA's Beijing Military Area Command.[1]

The base features a variety of mock facilities including highways, an airstrip,[4] a town center with buildings—one of which closely resembles the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, Taiwan—and a near-replica of the Eiffel Tower.[7] Many of these structures were built between 2013 and 2015.

In July 1997, the Central Military Commission designated Zhurihe to be modernized and turned into a training base for China.[1] The PLA opened the base to foreign armed forces for the first time on August 25, 2003.

References

  1. ^ a b c Liping, Gu (January 24, 2013). "Zhurihe Combined Tactics Training Base". ecns.cn. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  2. ^ Tse, Don (December 13, 2017). "China's Americanized Military". The Diplomat.
  3. ^ a b ""Military World Games in Military Barracks": Visit to Zhurihe Training Base". Media and Communication Department of the Executive Commission of the 7th CISM Military World Games. September 17, 2018. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  4. ^ a b Liang, Lim Yan (July 31, 2017). "Grand display at Asia's largest military training base". The Straits Times. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  5. ^ a b Zhou, Viola (July 24, 2017). "8 things to know about China's biggest army training base". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  6. ^ Martina, Michael; Blanchard, Ben (July 29, 2017). Coghill, Kim; Holmes, Sam (eds.). "China's Xi calls for building elite forces during massive military parade". Reuters.
  7. ^ a b Lee, Victor Robert (August 9, 2015). "Satellite Imagery: China Staging Mock Invasion of Taiwan?". The Diplomat. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
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