Burying the past: an extensive system of bomb shelter tunnels underneath Qianmen was built throughout the 1970s following a Sino-Soviet border dispute in 1969. Photo: CFP

By Zhang Hui

Beijing's "Underground City," a bomb shelter complex built underneath Qianmen during the 1970s, will likely be demolished in the near future, according to an official for a governmental department that oversees the site. The complex had become a popular tourist destination for more than 20 years following its decommission until being closed in 2008.

"The site's numerous fire hazards, cracking walls and leaking tunnels pose a great threat to the safety of anyone entering the area," an official for the Chongwen District Bureau of Civil Defense told the Global Times Tuesday. "The site will likely be demolished in the near future."

"It would be impossible to reopen," added the official, who preferred to remain anonymous. "The [City] finished its mission as an underground bomb shelter in the 1970s. We've long since upgraded the standards for building bomb shelters."

Interest in the labyrinthine underground tunnel system never seemed to have lost steam among tourists and foreign residents in Beijing, and has remained a popular topic of discussion in many online forums.

"I know [the Underground City] relates to Chairman Mao," a Pakistani university student studying in Beijing told the Global Times. "I wish I could have visited it before it was closed."

"Dig deep tunnels, store food and prepare for war," reads a Mao Zedong-attributed slogan pasted on one of the Underground City's walls. According to a China Radio International report in 2005 when the complex was still open, the area's ammunition storehouses, movie theaters, hospitals and conference rooms were all built in strict accordance with the era's architectural styles.

"I tried to access the [City] last June but failed, and it's a pity for it not being open anymore," wrote Stephan Curran in a posting on the travel website lonelyplanet.com in April. Curran added that he had been waiting to tour the Under-ground City for a long time.

A 1969 Sino-Soviet border dispute over Northeast China's Zhenbao Island on the Hei-longjiang River prompted the building of the Underground City. And from 1969 to 1979, more than 300,000 local residents constructed the massive site, which covers an area of 85 square kilometers.

"We conducted many air-raid drills in the shelters after building them," said an official with the Qianmen Subdistrict Administrative Office. The same official lived in Qianmen during construction of the Underground City. Every household built underground tunnels under their homes at the time, he added, as part of a "whole nation's campaign" to defend against the Soviet Union.

"I helped my mother dig up earth every day instead of going to school," the official continued, adding that many foreign visitors who toured the area have mistaken the bomb shelters for the Beijing government's network of underground defensive systems.

"The work of overactive imaginations," said the official. "The shelters were only used for public drills. The real ones were never opened to the public."