海角大神

Beijing鈥檚 underground dwellers

Even as China's wealth rises, an estimated 100,000 in the Beijing area live in underground bunkers.

In a city of about 20 million, it鈥檚 no surprise Beijing has more than its fair share of housing challenges. However, a solution that鈥檚 become common for many average wage earners is not one you would probably guess they鈥檇 consider first鈥� living underground in a 30-square mile network of air defense basements. The bunkers were originally built as shelter to protect citizens in the event of foreign air raids, and the Telegraph estimates that 鈥渁s many as a million people live in small, windowless rooms that rent for 拢30 to 拢50 a month.鈥� For the time being, despite China鈥檚 rising wealth, the homes are some of the only affordable housing options available to Beijing鈥檚 migrant laborers.

According to the Telegraph:

鈥淚n a Beijing suburb, beneath one of the thousands of faceless residential tower blocks that have carpeted the city鈥檚 peripheries in a decade-long building frenzy, one of Beijing鈥檚 鈥榖omb shelter hoteliers鈥�, as they are known, agrees to show us his wares. Passing under a green sign proclaiming 鈥楢ir Defence Basement鈥�, Mr Zhao leads us down two flights of stairs to the network of corridors and rooms that were designed to offer sanctuary in the event of war or disaster.

鈥溾�榃e have two sizes of room,鈥� he says, stepping past heaps of clutter belonging to residents, most of whom work in the nearby cloth wholesale market. 鈥楾he small ones [6ft by 9ft] are 300 yuan [拢30] the big ones [15ft by 6ft] are 500 yuan.鈥�

鈥淏eijing is estimated to have 30 square miles of tunnels and basements, some constructed after the Sino-Soviet split of 1969, when Mao鈥檚 China feared a Soviet missile strike, and many more constructed since to act as more modern emergency refuges. [...] 鈥楽ome 80pc of our tenants are girls working in the wholesale market and the rest are peddlers selling vegetables or running sidewalk snack booths,鈥� he adds. 鈥楾here are dozens of similar air defence basement projects in residential communities. In this area, they say 100,000 live underground.鈥欌��

Time will tell whether or not there is a bubble in China real estate. On the one hand, there are fewer mortgages in China than in the US, and therefore less of that type of home ownership speculation. On the other hand, the article points out that a very basic small apartment, about 860 square feet, now costs over 2,000,000 yuan, while the typical monthly salary is about 4,000 yuan. This means, 鈥渢he average person would take 50 years to buy such an apartment, assuming they saved every penny they earned.鈥� You can read more details, and arrive at your own conclusion, by visiting the Telegraph鈥檚 coverage of .

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