In 1969, Chairman Mao commanded the construction of a second Beijing beneath the surface of the original city, designed to accommodate all six million of its then inhabitants, so that if nuclear war did kick off, folk would still have somewhere to hang out and play Mah Jong while the rest of us burnt to death in a shower of atomic rain. War never came, but the city is still there.
To be fair to the crazy Chairman, by that time he was lost in the midst of those closing dark days of China’s brutal cultural revolution and the onset of motor neurone disease had shifted his ongoing descent into madness up to warp speed. No one really knows how much of the subterranean nuclear metropolis was actually completed, or just how far the network of underground tunnels and caverns was due to be extended, though it’s generally believed they connected up with all of Beijing’s main hubs and governmental locations, including Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s Central Station and the Western Hills. Having never been fully operational, it is largely forgotten and neglected these days. In fact, most Beijingers aren’t even aware it exists.
It’s pretty hard to get down there now, but by a few deft strokes of magical luck, during my last visit to Beijing I got put in touch with a mate of a mate of a person who knew a guy who heard a story of a bloke with a mate who had an access point down into the tunnels built incongruously into the back room of his small house in the centre of the Hutong district of town. On the condition that we didn’t reveal the exact location of the access point, his identity, or how much of a bribe we paid, he agreed to take us down.
It was always going to be highly unlikely that the police would ever pick up on us going down there, but obviously, getting busted would be fucking awful and our guide was skulking like he was being followed by searchlights and sniffer dogs as he lead us through the backstreets towards the entrance point – this dilapidated shop.
We corkscrewed down several unlit staircases before reaching an underground thoroughfare. Incredibly, despite the tunnel network reaching between eight to eighteen metres underground, the Beijing electricity board are still pumping the volts through the crumbling artifice – here and there the light switches still worked.
As we got deeper, the groundwater level rose. Soon we were up to our knees in freezing cold, shitty, disease-ridden slop. Here the lighting was a bit more volatile. Sometimes it worked, sometime the water-damaged bulbs would explode above our heads as soon as we flicked the switch.
Most paths – if they weren’t already flooded beyond accessibility – were blocked up with wood or trash. Our guide insisted that if we were to shift all the wood to get over the top, we’d be able to get all the way to Tiananmen Square, where the tunnels are apparently large enough to accommodate rolling tank processions.
It has periodically been put back into use – for local council storage space, depressing accommodation for manual labourers shipped in en-masse from the countryside, or for mad raves held by daring Chinese punks wearing miners’ headlamps. But much of it has also been concreted up, flooded, or destroyed to make way for Beijing’s new subway train network.
For a time, a small portion of it was also opened as a tourist attraction, done up to look as it would have if Mao’s underground utopia had ever come to fruition, but has since been shut down again after Beijing backpackers spoke with their wallets and realised they liked spending their money on cheap Chinese rice-liquor more than on exploring empty, rat-infested tunnels.
As we snooped around we found various rooms in different states of disrepair. I guess this is where the proposed underground restaurants, offices, hospitals, schools, theatres, factories and even rollerskating rink would have ended up being.
Here’s some evidence of the tunnels being multi-layered, though here the upper floor has been blocked off, or was never completed.
As we wandered on a bit, we found a couple of tiny bedrooms – one complete with damaged old posters on the walls. Great place to bring a girl back to.
Further down the flooded path, we found a few fading tokens of the dream that built this barren bunker.
A crumpled picture of the man himself, and a commemorative plaque reminding everyone to be good communists by “digging deep tunnels, storing more food, not seeking hegemony.” That’s always been my motto.
Here’s a bit of a map we found that gives you an idea of the complexity of the tunnels.
Then something quite unexpected happened. As we walked further, presumably close to another ground level exit, we spotted lights already on ahead of us, and a couple of rather pleasant potted plants.
Turns out the People’s Republic of China are still pushing their proles underground, and some poor folk are actually living down here as a testament to Beijing’s swelling population and housing problems.
Just because they’re on a washing line doesn’t mean they’ve ever been washed.
Look! More proof people live down here – a big kitchen!
And most charming of all, this recent innovation in toilet socialism: fully exposed, communal squat shitters.
Our guide started to get anxious that we were seeing too much and our feet were now soaked and freezing, so we got the fuck out to return to the communist utopia of contemporary Beijing at ground level.
Oh yeah :(
ALEX HOBAN
Reader Comments
November 17th, 2009
awesome article- should have stayed down longer though!
November 17th, 2009
Nice…cool article. Shame I didnt know about this when I was there last. Which Hutong was it in?
November 17th, 2009
Cool story bro.
November 17th, 2009
That is pretty amazing.
November 17th, 2009
must suck if you were claustrophobic
November 17th, 2009
Wiki says they were dug mostly by hand, much of it by schoolchildren.
November 17th, 2009
Fallout 3?
November 17th, 2009
nice pics, kind of scary ;)
November 17th, 2009
Fallout 3, thats exactly what i thought too
November 17th, 2009
Just imagining the ‘mad raves held by daring Chinese punks wearing miners’ headlamps - sounds awesome!
November 18th, 2009
So, are their street dogs and strays all pugs? Cause those would be the most adorable feral animals ever.
November 18th, 2009
Those tunnels not only are creepy even in a picture, but so strange to see people using them as real housing environment.
And…
Is that dog walking itself?! In China?!? WTF!?
Imagine 1000 people snoring in tiny tunnels…. The sound! The price of ear plugs!! Heheheh
November 18th, 2009
There was just a show about this. There are actually huge communities and hostels that are down there. They get used a fair bit apparently.
November 18th, 2009
Nice picture and story.
Regarding the dogs: There are plent of street dogs in China. But only the small one, the bigger one, requires to much energy to stay alive, are mostly owned dogs. But darn the small dogs are everywhere begging for food.
November 18th, 2009
I heard that in ny guiliani made all the homeless live in the sewers, which means thats where all the real new yorkers are now, fuck you hipster vice gentrification rich kid koke heads
November 18th, 2009
很好！This is awesome.
November 18th, 2009
HOLY CRAP! I’m so creeped out just looking at the pictures!
November 18th, 2009
That is just incredible!
I wish i had known about that when i went to beijing several years ago. Any hints on how to find someone to take you there would be appreciated.
November 18th, 2009
That’s awesome, I’m fascinated! It actually looks like it wouldn’t be too hard to clean up some of those tunnels…
November 18th, 2009
Fucking awesome. I’m going to Beijing myself in a few months; wonder if there’s any way for me to get down there…
November 18th, 2009
is there a button that needs to be pushed?
November 18th, 2009
Seems like typical communist attrition. China and Russia have all sorts of half-finished (sometimes completely finished) structures which go unused. It follows behind a mentality that goes for preparation and survival by keeping all of your bases covered.
Granted, other places have this too- they just don’t get neglected in quite the same unique fashion.
November 18th, 2009
ni hao, vice magazine! good work.
November 18th, 2009
this is really awesome
November 18th, 2009
Yeah, go ahead and be smug about the legacy that Chinese communism left. What would you say if I told you I had it on good authority that those are simply test residents down there under Beijing. They are actually a kind of pilot program to see if an entire population could live underground. But they are not testing for a Chinese population. They are testing to see if Americans could survive down there. True. Yes it is. It seems the Chinese Government is looking into the eventuality that they would, in the not too distant future, own the whole, or large pieces of America and, by default, its somewhat bothersome citizenry. Anticipating the need to export cheap labor to China (goddamn Chinese Unions are already starting to act uppity), and the need to house that labor; and after stumbling into several histories of how Americans housed their imported Chinese labor during the 19th century, the Beijing Refuge and Retreat Complex seemed the perfect answer. Which explains the potted plants; actually a pilot program to see which American cultivars survive in zero sunlight, and the open communal toilets; the Chinese anticipate Americans will bring there own fixtures to make the room ‘homier.’ You all had better get used to it.
November 18th, 2009
Strange ,don’t know that kinds of place exist. Very suprised！
November 18th, 2009
>>What would you say if I told you I had it on good authority that those are simply test residents down there under Beijing. They are actually a kind of pilot program to see if an entire population could live underground. But they are not testing for a Chinese population. They are testing to see if Americans could survive down there.
——
I probably wouldn’t say much. I’d smile, toss a quarter in your cup and continue on my merry way.
November 18th, 2009
Seamus sounds like Scumnation’s more articulate, but equally as idiotic older brother.
On the other hand - amazing article
November 18th, 2009
Any reason to believe there is anything similar in other Chinese cities? Hong Kong? Macao?
November 18th, 2009
At least the Chinese showed that they cared enough about the whole population being saved compared to western Governments. Did the Americans build for the whole population did they fuck. Their definition of the whole population is the chosen few and I bet none of you cunts parents were considered to be in that category. Here in the UK we built bunkers all over the country. None of them had a capacity of more than a few hundred, so take it on the chin brothers and sisters your country does not give a fuck about you, the scum learnt that at birth.
November 18th, 2009
Bloody hell mate, thas a wee bit mad, eh? At least we speak normally and know our grammar. And by the way, what the hell are bunkers going to do for you against nuclear warfare?
November 18th, 2009
Actually, scumnation, the US DID build shelters for us to stay. BIG ONES. Do you honestly think that the USA would not spend their tax dollars on THAT, as patriotic and concerned about our global leadership role as we could to be? Prime example of this is the DC fucking metro system. Did u know that it was built not only to be a metro system but a large ass bomb shelter for everyone in the city? And yes, the metro makes it to Southeast. Take a vacation. Or how about the mountains in southern PA that dug out hollow based bomb shelters to protect all of the Pennsylvania “cunts parents” outside of your so-called category? Do your research. If the UK ever gets bombed, god forbid, I hope you make it to one of your bunkers so it shuts u the hell up.
November 18th, 2009
This article is incredible! Something with these tunnels could make a great story for a book or a movie. Or does anyone know of any books already on this subject or similar?
I wish there could have been more pictures of larger rooms like of the restaurants, offices, hospitals, schools, theatres, factories or rollerskating rinks. Were they blocked off or something?
November 18th, 2009
The hidden secrets of a shiny, happy China .. an endless list.
Top article and great commentary.
November 18th, 2009
Cool pics but you ratted out the people that were living down there. Now the Chinese government will kill them all
November 18th, 2009
Wow… Makes me glad I have a nice house….
November 18th, 2009
vhs there is a difference of a few million and tens of millions. The only thing that the US government has built for its citizens on that scale is the large scale compounds, the biggest being in Alaska reportedly able to house 2 million people. But these are not shelters to protect US citizens from attack they are to hold US citizens who are deemed to be subversive to the state. That was not thought up by me but other US citizens telling the world what is going to happen in the not too distant future. You should be asking yourself why your government is building these compounds and for what purpose.
November 18th, 2009
I agreee with this chris dude. Scumnation, you are endearing. VHS, point made. And seamus, you are definitely scumnations older brother.
Damn i want to see these! I like the old Mao poster.
They should be part of the wolrd historic trust thing. If there is one?
November 18th, 2009
COFFEE TABLE BOOK!
COFFE TABLE BOOK!
You;re getting a good little spread of these kind of adventures. is it the same guy always who writes it?
November 19th, 2009
if you want to see all the old communist posters go to the Tate Modern there is a room full of them there.
November 20th, 2009
Very cool pics man! the old mao poster is interesting to see.
November 20th, 2009
Weird thing is about this article, is that I was in Beijing this time last year…And enjoyed a 2 hour guided tour of the underground system. not as crappy a bit of it as in the above article, but it wasn’t exactly the big secret that it’s made out to be - pretty sure you can get the details in the beiging lonely planet guide.
November 20th, 2009
looks remarkably like the tunnels of Rochester,Kent , Uk.
Check it out…..Loads of websites and pics
November 20th, 2009
There was supposedly a tunnel system underneath the former Staatssicherheit building in the former East Germany that was expansive enough to cover the entirety of Berlin. I can’t guarantee this as the guy who told me this fact is none other than Ebby, the resident German mentalist and Nottingham Forest super-fan. he smells of dirty coins.
It’s definitely a communist thing though - the tunnel networks in North Korea are also believed to be vast and spread across international borders.
November 21st, 2009
this is all bullshit lies and obviously photoshopped.
November 21st, 2009
As if Mao would have built tunnels to save all of Beijing. He let 38 million Chinese die of famine (within a 2 year period!), NOT because there wasn’t any food available but because he used all of it to send to Russia in order to get the nuclear bomb. He didn’t give a fuck about his own people, they were as disposable to him as the food he was giving away.
November 23rd, 2009
[...] History – Chairman Mao’s Underground City (Vice). [...]
November 30th, 2009
I gotta say, I’ve never been there, but I found out about this place a year ago, even before I went to Beijing, because it’s on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixia_Cheng
So not exactly a crazy secret, although I’ve never heard it talked about while I’ve been in Beijing. As for the people living down there, this is A) yeah, not uncommon in China, and I’ve probably been in restaurants with kitchens almost as sketchy (although not underground) but B) not exactly uncommon in the U.S. or other countries either. While The Mole People seemed pretty obviously cut from whole cloth, there was a pretty large population in the New York City subway system, especially before 2001.
The Underground City really is a pure testament to Mao’s single-minded pursuit of his (often blisteringly insane) projects, though. China’s left most of that behind, but it still pops up occasionally with things like the gigantic, pants-shaped CCTV tower.
November 30th, 2009
In most countries cities prepared for a nuclear war, like in Rotterdam and also Amsterdam under the metro stations Wibautstraat, Weesperplein, AMC hospital, Nuon, etc. It’s great to see, trains that never came, lines never finished, beds and toilets+ showers in the same style as in the Chinese photographs show :)
The planning during the cold war for the nuclear war that never came. In some internet fora people are wondering why their GSM/UMTS phones work there, why this radiation particles can reach these concrete bunkers while gamma radiation with a much shorter frequency is supposed not to?
November 30th, 2009
Someplace there is film of these “bunkers” in their full new glory. As a kid I can vividly remembering seeing these type of shelters displayed with pride. Propaganda was a great weapon of the Cold War and those bunkers told the World we can survive any nuclear attack. Soon after people started to realize that no one would.
November 30th, 2009
In the winter of 07 I went on a guided tour of a cleaner section of these tunnels… they lined the walls with photos of tanks and politicians, and showed us some rooms all done up in the “way back when” style. You could see the paths wind away in other directions, and the guide said that there were in fact tunnels that connected the cities to each other, that Beijing was not alone in this. I remember the guide saying that the tunnels were collectively longer than the great wall.
The whole tour ended in an underground silk factory / tourist trap, wherein the guides would show you how they cultivated all of this underground, and would you be interested in buying something?
Oh well.
November 30th, 2009
[...] In 1969, Chairman Mao commanded the construction of a second Beijing beneath the surface of the original city… Via [...]
November 30th, 2009
[...] Underground City? Recently bumped into this story of a hidden network of tunnels over at Vice Magazine. A genuinely interesting piece from one of our roving reporters out in [...]
December 1st, 2009
[...] Built This City! Doot Doot! We Built This City… Un-Der-Ground!”: Chairman Mao’s Underground City Share and [...]
December 2nd, 2009
great article, but i did find this:
http://www.china.org.cn/english/travel/125961.htm
and yes, you did mention that it used to be a tourist trap. so it is both true that it is hard to access and easy to access, depending on where you are in the city. I am impressed by the photos and the effort to take them! I do not know if coffee table book would work, but selling shutterfly ‘albums’ via Twitter might get you some cash for future expeditions. Glad to have found this blog!
December 4th, 2009
[...] a photo tour of the network of tunnels under the city of Beijing, ordered built by Mao in 1969, designed to [...]
December 4th, 2009
[...] December 4, 2009 A fascinating and rather spooky exploration of Chairman Mao’s underground city: a network of tunnels built beneath Beijing in 1969 to protect the city’s inhabitants from [...]
December 18th, 2009
[...] the Cold War era, Chairman Mao built a vast underground city under Beijing. The city was built in hopes that if war did erupt between China and other countries (most notably [...]
December 18th, 2009
[...] Spotted on Vice [...]
December 20th, 2009
If I had know that when I was there… I love decadence! But I wouldn’t want to stumble upon the people living there, abandoned places should be abandoned.
December 22nd, 2009
liikek it
December 25th, 2009
nice article and photos - you are pretty much single-handedly keeping VICE online worthwhile these days.
December 29th, 2009
[...] “In 1969, Chairman Mao commanded the construction of a second Beijing beneath the surface of the original city, designed to accommodate all six million of its then inhabitants, so that if nuclear war did kick off, folk would still have somewhere to hang out and play Mah Jong while the rest of us burnt to death in a shower of atomic rain. War never came, but the city is still there….” [story] [...]
December 29th, 2009
How much does it cost to rent one of those tunnels? I’m not the claustrophobic type. If those plants can thrive, anyone can. Who needs sunshine and skin cancer anyway?
February 1st, 2010
[...] -Ciudad subterránea de Beijing-Construida por orden de Mao en 1969, fotos de Viceland [...]