The idea of an underground city under Beijing It seems like something out of fiction, but for years it was part of real life in the capital china.
Beneath the surface stretched a network of tunnels and shelters that, over time, ended up serving as housing for migrant workers and low-income people. This reality contrasted sharply with what was happening on the surface, one of the most expensive and controlled cities in China.
What was the underground city of Beijing like?
The place began to be known as The Dungeon, also called Dìxià Chéng or “The Dungeon”. Over the years, its inhabitants began to be called “The Rat Tribea nickname that was installed due to the social composition of the place. Immigrant workers and residents with few resources found there a more accessible option than the surface.
The Dungeon extends throughout 85 kilometers and has three levels underground. At its peak, it was home to more than a million people, although the exact number of subsequent residents was never entirely clear.
The complex included sports facilities, cinemas, theaters, restaurants and other services that made underground life more bearable.
The Chinese government once estimated that the system could house the entire population of Beijing At that time, about six million inhabitants.
Why The Dungeon Was Created
He origin of Dìxià Chéng goes back to 1969in the middle of the Cold War. In the midst of tensions between China and the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong ordered “dig deep tunnels, store food and prepare for war.” The underground city was born as a nuclear bunker network.
Some 300,000 civilians participated in the construction of that network. The plan included 10,000 atomic bunkers, as well as warehouses, factories, restaurants, theaters and even a skating rink. It was a defense infrastructure designed on a large scale to withstand an extreme scenario.
What it was like to live under the streets of Beijing
One of its residents said that He lived in a 25-square-meter apartment that he shared with nine other people..
His phrase sums up the logic of the place quite well: it was not a comfortable choice, but a way to push himself to continue working in a city where living upstairs cost too much.
The teacher Annette Kimof the University of Southern California, explained why such spaces remained attractive: No one preferred to live underground, but the central location of the tunnels made them valuable to those who needed to be close to work.
In 2010las Beijing authorities They declared housing in the bunkers illegal for security reasons.
However, a good part of the residents remained there, in an uncertain situation. The underground city did not disappear suddenly: it remained a hidden and persistent presence beneath the capital.
