QIANMEN DISTRICT. An extraordinary series of underground bunkers and tunnels stretches beneath Beijing city center. Built between 1969 and 1979, originally under the guidance of Chairman Mao, the 30 km (19 miles) of tunnels were excavated (often by schoolchildren) as air-raid shelters during China's Cold War spats with the US and the Soviet Union. The Underground City was built to house up to 6 million evacuees and was equipped with restaurants, clinics, schools, theaters, factories, a roller skating rink, a grain and oil warehouse as well as barber shops and a mushroom cultivation farm, for growing foods that require little light. It is rather damp in the tunnels, but a fascinating insight into the paranoia of the times.

Daily 8:30am-5pm

Cash Only

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