October 14,2008:  China's Southern Fleet has built a submarine damage control simulator at its main submarine base. The simulator is a series of metal room, built to be exactly like compartments in a diesel-electric submarine. The pipes can be filled with water, and some pipes are built with leaks. Thus when the "leaky" pipes have water in them, they leak, and the trainees have to repair the leak in a certain amount of time, or fail the course. Fires can also be started in the compartments. Sailors can also practice escape procedures, and all manner operations that have to be learned to safe and efficiently operate a submarine. The sub simulator is in use most of the time, as experience has shown that sailors who have spent a lot of time training in it, are more effective, and less prone to making mistakes, when they go to sea in the real thing.