Visitors allowed into Beijing's Underground City: 24-10-2007
Visitors are now to be allowed access to a network of secret tunnels and rooms underneath Beijing, built under the orders of Chairman Mao Zedong as a bomb shelter which could accommodate 40 per cent of the city's residents.
Amid fears of a nuclear attack due to the Sino-Soviet border conflict, the 'Underground City' was built between 1969 and 1979 with all the amenities a metropolis could need.
Over 300,000 residents, including schoolchildren, worked on constructing the complex out of pieces of Beijing's ancient city wall, using only hand-held tools.
Now, visitors will be allowed into the tunnels of the Underground City, which cover 30 kilometres and are as deep as 18 metres underground in places.
Stepping down a set of stairs concealed by a shop front, English-speaking guides take visitors through an underground network of low tunnels which lead to a cinema, a card room, a children's reading room, a silk factory, armaments stores and a small hospital.
Access routes - which have been sealed off - line the tunnels, with pathways to Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.
What visitors will not be permitted to see are the dormitories, kitchens, shops, restaurants, schools, provisions storerooms and the roller-skating rink that are said to exist in the Underground City.
People who want to see the secret site will have to go to Beijing themselves, rather than relying on the holiday snaps of friends and family, as photos are forbidden due to the site belonging to the national defence department.