Few people know about Beijing’s underground’s Dixia Cheng, or “underground city,” a complex network of tunnels that Chairman Mao built in 1969 for fear of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. It’s been closed to the public, but Viceland.com bloggers recently found a secret doorway into the tunnels, and documented the illicit exploration with some great pictures.
The underground city was never fully completed, but the plan was to literally build a second Beijing underground, equipped with restaurants, theaters, clinics, schools and even an ice-skating rink. Rumor has it that every residence once had a trapdoor that led to the underground city, and it apparently was supposed to able to house the city’s then population of six million people.
Check out the fascinating pictures here.
(Thanks, Dunks!)
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awesome pix!!! the ny chinatown also has a underground tunnel system back in the day, but it was for smuggling and gang fights