MK sport farewell ceremony for Huang Xuhua, chief designer of China's first-generation nuclear submarines, is held at Wuchang Funeral Home in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province on February 10, 2025, with many people lining up to lay flowers in remembrance of him. Photo: VCG" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2025/2025-02-10/6b49eb1b-98b5-4682-be91-4cfc041903b6.jpeg" />

The farewell ceremony for Huang Xuhua, chief designer of China's first-generation nuclear submarines, is held at Wuchang Funeral Home in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province on February 10, 2025, with many people lining up to lay flowers in remembrance of him. Photo: VCG

 
The farewell ceremony for Huang Xuhua, chief designer of China's first-generation nuclear submarines, was held at Wuchang Funeral Home in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province at 10 am on Monday, as mourners from across the country paid tribute to Huang's lifelong dedication to the country's nuclear submarine cause.

Huang, seen by many as the "father of China's nuclear submarines," passed away at the age of 99 on Thursday evening. In Wuhan, people have been lining up to pay their respects in recent days at the general building of the 719 Research Institute of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, where a memorial ceremony was held for Huang.

At the entrance to the farewell ceremony, flowers sent by people from all over the country including East China's Shanghai and Shandong Province, South China's Guangdong Province, and Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, were neatly arranged with message cards conveying heartfelt tributes to Huang, Hubei Daily reported on Monday.

Besides sending flowers to mourn their national hero, people also placed items related to Huang's lifelong work with nuclear submarines to honor him, including a model of a nuclear submarine and a marine adventure book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea,said the report.

In front of Huang's portrait, the farewell flowers were arranged in the shape of a submarine and ocean waves, symbolizing his lifelong dedication to China's nuclear submarine development. 

Farewell flowers were arranged in the shape of a submarine and ocean waves at the farewell ceremony for China's first-generation nuclear submarine chief designer Huang Xuhua. Photo: From Hubei Daily.

In 1958, Huang, together with 28 other experts specialized in shipbuilding, were secretly called to Beijing, where they established a research institute codenamed "19." Huang was appointed as the chief engineer to spearhead China's nuclear submarine program. From that point, he worked at the institute for 30 years and had never gone back home, CCTV News reported. 

With no one ever seeing a nuclear submarine and no technical references, it was not until someone brought back two children's toy models of nuclear submarines from abroad that Huang's team finally obtained physical reference parameters. With no computers, the team worked day and night to perform all calculations with an abacus and a slide rule.

In 1974, China's first nuclear submarine the Changzheng-1, developed by Huang and his colleagues, was officially commissioned into the Chinese Navy, making the country the fifth in the world to possess a nuclear submarine. It took China less than 13 years from the formation of the team in 1958 to the trial voyage of Changzheng-1in 1970, a feat widely regarded as a miracle, CCTV reported.

"We must tell our children about Huang's deep love for his country, to help them remember history and inspire them to contribute to the nation. Without the selfless dedication and sacrifices of our predecessors, we wouldn't have the wonderful life we enjoy today," Xu Liang, a Wuhan resident who came to mourn Huang with his son and grandson, was cited as saying in the Hubei Daily report.

On Sunday, many people also came to visit the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy Museum in Qingdao, Shandong. Outside the main building of the museum, the decommissioned Changzheng-1nuclear submarine rests quietly by the shore, the report said.

At Huang's alma mater Shanghai Jiao Tong University where he studied at the Shipbuilding Engineering Department from 1945 to 1949, memorial ceremonies had been held in two campus separately on Friday and Saturday, according to the report. 

Huang's former residence is an unassuming three-story building located at Sancun village in Shanwei in Guangdong. Flowers were filled in front of the building and many people came to mourn him, bowing and offering flowers, the report said.

The successful development of China's first nuclear submarine was a milestone in China's rise as a global power and provided a reliable guarantee for national security at a time when China was the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council without nuclear submarine, Wang Yunfei, a naval expert, told the Global Times.

Wang said that the legacy left by Huang and the pioneering generation of scientists is not only the technology of nuclear submarine design, but also a lasting inspiration for future generations: To march forward and overcome difficulties with unwavering faith in the nation and its people despite facing challenging conditions.