A photo expedition into Mao's underground city, Beijing

So who would've thought that under the entire center of Beijing, underneath the peaceful Hutong streets and even stretching to Tianemen Square, there is a whole underground city? In the 1960's, while the ever star -reaching west  was building space shuttles, Mao came up with the idea that the future lay underground. It was a time of fear of nuclear war, and he planned for it. The result is that today in Beijing there are tunnels all over the narrow streets surrounding the Forbidden City and Tianemen Square. Secret entrances in people's houses that lead down into a network of passage ways leading eventually to a complex of subterranean buildings said to include: a hospital, storerooms, safe houses for officials, and an entire 4-lane highway leading from the government buildings to the outskirts of the city! And walking around Beijing, you would have no idea it was even there. With a friend writing an article on this amazing piece of Communist engineering, we went down into the tunnels. Whatever was down there my camera was ready! While we couldn't take photographs of the outside of the building, we could do what we liked once we got down there. It was a bit like entering the hatch in LOST.

My friend Alex had gotten in touch with Time Out magazine to find out how they got down there fro their article. It turned out there was a guy who worked on this street who knew a place we could get in. I'll call him the Lego Man. I'm not sure if he paid a bribe to whoever guarded this house, but he lead to through the Hutong on our mission. There was a soldier at the door who made a big deal out of not looking at us at all as we passed, and then we were descending steps into the basement of this normal house. We were in.

I mentioned LOST, it really was like that, but with no lights in a tunnel knee deep in water. Directions to different rooms were printed in red chinese letters on the once-white walls. There were quotes celebrating the 'Great Leader' and the Communist Party. We expected DHARMA signs everywhere and a computer we'd have to enter codes to save the world! And a monster or two. Torches cast eerie disorientating light across everything, reflecting off the water at our feet, and at weird angles off the walls. Lego Man held a lighter to the wall to see what was written there, the flame dancing in a warm glow compared to the dark and the white torch beams. Zebra light. Off the main tunnel were maybe ten storerooms, some empty, one full of old rusted bicycles from the 60's, one with fire extinguishers. Some old posters were peeling off the wall, from more recently though, these tunnels were used as a hang out in the past for kids. Certain sections of the tunnels were open to the public for a time, but have been closed (permanently?) for over one year. It could be that they are dangerous and unstable as a result of the subway lines cutting through them.

Our adventure was cut short though. At the end of the tunnel we looked up to see that there was a way to the top from here, and in front of us the roof had caved in. It was full of debris, so there was no way we could go any further. The experience of going down there was amazing, it is something that is about as far from the tourist trail as you can get! We hoped to get a bit further into the tunnels but we had to go back. A lot of people have never heard about this place and most Beijingers have never gone down here. I didn't know anything about it until I met Alex and we were lucky to get the chance to go down there.

We had only 20 minutes to get out of there before the people that owned the house came back so we had to run. I took so many pictures in that short time, just kept on clicking for all I was worth! But the total darkness lit from torches made it no easy task!
Still we got a good look at the underworld of Beijing, and I came away with some good photographs. job done.

So in theory if you found the right entrance you could follow these tunnels all the way to Tianemen Square. But they are cut across all over by subway lines, and many have been blocked off on purpose by the military. The reason could be two-fold. For safety. Or to keep whatever is under the Government buildings secret. China from my experience is touchy about things like this, even a 40 year old tunnel system. The Communist Party rules. Mao is alive and well in some ways, still given his 'due respect' from everyone too scared to say otherwise. I was told from one person who would say what was on his mind that people are  embarrassed by that whole period, but can't say it because of two reasons: they love China, and there still isn't any true freedom of speech there. I went busking on Tianemen Square that same week in front of Mao and although the police came, they just watched from a distance, to make sure I wasn't starting a riot! I was starting to think China was actually cool, when two days later the last person to speak out against the government in China, the famous artist Ai Weiwei was detained. He was trying to testify on behalf of his friend, writer Tan Zuoren, on trial for subversion. Ai Weiwei was beaten and arrested. He designed the bird's nest for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, and he was the only person to openly criticize China in his blog. It makes me appreciate coming from an open free country where I can say what I want, where people cue up everyday to shout at the government! We don't have to worry about the police breaking down our doors and dragging us away for writing a blog like this one!

FACT FILE:

Beijing’s Underground City was open to the public from the year 2000 but have since been closed to the public as of 2002.



The tunnels were built from 1969 to 1979 by more than 300,000 locals and even school children, they extend for over 30 kms covering an area of 85sq kms, 8 to 18metres underground.



There are more than 1000 anti-air raid structures in place.



Most of the ancient city walls of Beijing were leveled for building materials.



It was planned that the tunnels could house 40% of Beijing’s population in case of nuclear attack. Luckily it was never used!



For those interested in seeing the Underground City, the address is 62 West Damochang Street, Qianmen, tel. 6702-2657. Apparently, there is another site in Beijing Qianmen Carpet Factory at 44 Xingfu Dajie, Chongwen District, tel. 6701-5079 and a lesser known one at 18 Dazhalan Jie in Qianmen. (at the time of writing, the access to the underground city is by unofficial means only)


Published in the November College Tribune UCD. See www.ucd.ie/tribune for online edition every month.
Thanks to Cathy for all her help!