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Hong Kong photographer ventures inside Chernobyl exclusion zone

Steven Wu went from exploring abandoned sites in the city to entering the ultimate zone of devastation – the ghost town near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

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Steven Wu in an abandoned kindergarten in Pripyat inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Photo: Handout

Believe it or not, “radiation tourism” is a budding business.

The cataclysmic explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the then Soviet Union in April 1986 prompted photographer Steven Wu, who loves visiting ruined sites, to take a two-day tour last month of the “exclusion zone” in what is now Ukraine.

The 28 year old discovered his love for photography after buying a camera to document his experiences at the Chinese University.

In 2014, he came across a Facebook post mentioning a group called Hong Kong Urban Exploration (HK URBEX), which seeks out and explores abandoned sites in Hong Kong.

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