CHINA:Beijing city authorities are clearing out an intricate network of underground hotels in a micro-city beneath the capital's downtown area made up of hundreds of air-raid shelters before the Olympics, citing safety concerns.
This subterranean network of tunnels and basement rooms is known as Underground City and contains hotels that are home to tens of thousands of people, including many migrant workers.
The shelters were built in various stages during the decades after the Communist Party came to power in 1949. The first were built by the communists in the 1950s when they were afraid of aerial assault by the defeated US-backed Kuomintang Nationalists in the 1950s.
Later, when Sino-Soviet relations soured and Chairman Mao Zedong feared nuclear assault from the USSR, a further complex of shelters was built.
Many still exist, from small basement rooms to vast underground tunnels hundreds of metres long, and some provide budget lodgings for migrant workers and other cash-strapped visitors to the city.
"There are 70,000 or 80,000 people living in these . Some small guesthouses have up to 100 to 200 people," Li Changshuan, head of Beijing's Civil Defence bureau, told the Beijing News.
"The rooms are small and narrow, and have latent safety issues," said Mr Li, adding that any such guesthouses near areas athletes would travel through or use during the games would be "gradually cleared out and no longer offered for rent".
He said authorities had already "rectified" underground offices in the shelters over an eight-month campaign, removing many hidden dangers and banning their commercial use. Many of the underground hotels had poor safety standards and offered substandard accommodation.
The shelters were opened officially in 2000 and are a popular tourist venue.
The construction of the tunnels followed a rallying call, and many were built during the fervour of the Cultural Revolution by 300,000 citizens, including schoolchildren.