The Rat Tribe of Beijing

There is a secret world under China’s capital, where metamorphosis takes place every morning. In this secret world which exists without sun or fresh air, people get out of bed in dark and dank cave-like rooms early each day. They empty bedpans into communal toilets and pay 50 cents for a five-minute shower. Then they ascend stairways to the outside world and transform themselves from “rats” to normal people.

These new Beijingers, who number about 1 million, are known as the “rat tribe” in China. They are the capital’s migrant workers. They can’t afford the sky-high prices of houses above ground. Beijing has some of the highest-priced residential housing in the world; in fact, even the smallest residential units are priced out of the reach of much of the population. Beijing has more than 21 million residents, and with space at such a premium, demand is high. So these people have no option but to live in basements, tunnels and former air-raid shelters. They are living and sleeping next to gas pipes, electricity wires and sewers. There is no fresh air in these underground dwellings. It is dank, dark and humid.

These workers are often young and come to Beijing with dreams of making their fortune, or they’re from an older generation and hope to earn more than they would in the countryside. They are the cleaners, the hairdressers, the street sweepers of the city - the backbone of Beijing’s service industry.

In fact, it is technically illegal to rent out such units. The government say that basements and former bomb shelters shouldn’t be rented out. But like many things in China, they occupy a “grey area”. There is a huge market for this kind of cheap living. As a result, quite a few of the city’s landlords have kept on leasing these subterranean spaces. Officials intentionally ignore the problem because these workers are needed to keep the city moving.