Meet some of the Rat Tribe in China's capital

[lunasun]

http://projects.aljazeera.com/2015/01/underground-beijing/

They live under ground in rooms while above people shop and stop in at Starbucks . Left over tunnels from Mao's revolution . Not always out of economic despair but sometimes to save for the future they seek these dwellings. Many new to the city from rural areas say it is all about location which gives them opportunity
BEIJING — Every morning, a metamorphosis takes place below the ground of China’s capital. In a world without sun or fresh air, people roll out of bed in windowless rooms, empty bedpans into communal toilets, pay 50 cents for a five-minute shower, ascend concrete stairways to the outside world and transform themselves from residents of the city’s most despised housing to strivers, hungry for a piece of the Chinese dream.Most of the residents are young arrivals, hoping for a foothold in China’s most important city, the center not just of politics, but of art, business and alternative lifestyles. They are actors and street sweepers, hair stylists and shampoo girls, newlyweds and in-laws, Buddhists and Christians. Many have dramatic, sometimes-picaresque stories, like the rags-to-riches one of Wei Kuan, a 27-year-old petty criminal turned insurance salesman — with career stops along the way as delivery boy, funeral singer, foot masseur and bathhouse worker
“Of course, no one would prefer to live underground, but there was a strong preference to location,” says Annette Kim, a professor at the University of Southern California who surveyed 3,400 underground apartments with Lu Bin, a professor at Peking University. “What happens in most parts of the world is affordable-housing projects are in bad areas far from the city because that’s where land is affordable. But people don’t want to live there too because the commute is so far.”Despite these advantages, the stigma of living below ground is strong. Some migrants say they haven’t told family members or delayed doing so for months. “When my father came to visit me he cried when he saw where I lived,” says Zhang Xi, an aspiring actor. “He said, ‘Son, this won’t do