Features

44-1.jpg (2033 bytes) Beijing faced death from above in 1969. War with the Soviet Union seemed imminent. The enemy possessed overwhelming aerial superiority and a vast nuclear arsenal. The capital's citizens had nowhere to run, but Chairman Mao had a plan.

The order went out to dig a vast network of tunnels under the city. This being the era of mass action, an army of "volunteers" set to work with little more than picks and shovels to create the world's longest air-raid shelter. It took them 10 years to finish.

44-3.jpg (2714 bytes) "The slogan was: 'The people's war is the sea to drown imperialism,' recalled Hou Ying, 49. "Everyone had to take responsibility to protect the country. We dug all day and all night without a rest. We were very excited."

Schoolchildren competed to see who could mix the most mud or make the most bricks.

44-2.jpg (4516 bytes) Housewives were handed tools by the local neighborhood committees.

"I spent several months digging the shelters in 1971," said Fu Lei, 74. "A little boy hit my daughter in the head with a pickax, so the experience left a deep impression on me."

By 1979, the threat of war had receded so far that the shelter was already a white elephant. The underground military headquarters were given over to a clothing factory, and after a bit of creative thinking the "Underground City" was reborn as a tourist attraction.

The section open to visitors is in the south of the city, near the Chongwenmen subway station. Lit by low-watt bulbs and filled with distant echoes, the dank tunnels form an eerie labyrinth. Only a short circuit is illuminated; darkness yawns beyond scruffy signs indicating the routes to Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven and Beijing Railway Station.

45-4.jpg (38068 bytes) This southern section stretches for 25 kilometers and was designed to house 60,000 people in case of emergency. Drinking water systems and toilets were installed to make life below ground bearable. Thickly rusted steel doors still stand open at certain junctions, no longer ready to swing into use in the event of a gas attack.

Instead of frustrating Soviet bombers, the tunnels now give a headache to construction companies, who have to apply for permission to fill them in before the foundations are put down for any major buildings.

Beijing is far from the only place with a subterranean inheritance from the Sino-Soviet split. Old Beijinger Hao Wenzhong was digging in Hebei at the time.

"Hebei's tunnels are better than Beijing's," he said. Unlike the capital's narrow arteries, Hao said there is room to drive two trucks through Hebei's tunnels, which now house hotels, restaurants, discos and karaoke bars.

45-5.jpg (2536 bytes) There is one major cultural addition to the tourist section of the Beijing Underground City. The Qianmen Arts and Crafts Service Centre opened in 1980 at a point where the passages open out into a spacious, bright room that comes as quite a shock after the chilly, claustrophobic approach. Inside are all the usual tourist knick-knacks, plus a few works of art, silk items and Chinese medicines, but in one respect it must surely be unique: According to the brochure, the arts and crafts center "has attracted tourists from all parts of the world because of its excellent services, wide range of commodities and its crisscrossing underground defence network."

The Underground City is at 62 Xidamochang Hutong, Qianmenwai. Walk west along the road running along the north side of the New World Shopping Center (Xinshijie Shangchang) for about 400 meters.

Tel: 64974451
Open 8:30 am. to 5:30 pm.
Admission: 20 yuan.