A Chinese start-up, Digua Shequ, is turning a former nuclear bomb shelter in Beijing into a community centre, with co-working spaces, a 3-D printing station, a cinema, a hair salon, cafe and gym. The project was funded by the European Union through its Horizon 2020 research programme. More than 10k concrete bunkers, built as part of Mao's Cold War defence strategy, have been transformed into shops, offices and homes; rented out to migrant or low-paid workers at rents that are a third less than for homes above ground. After The New York Times submitted an interview request to the neighborhood committee, Mr. Zhou said, an official there who supports the project called him and recommended that he not mention the “floating population” or “northern drifters” — two euphemisms for migrant workers. While the government has declared the residential spaces will become illegal by 2017, given estimates of between 150k to 1m residents with no provision for re-location, some believe the policy may be quietly dropped.
A Chinese start-up, Digua Shequ, is turning a former nuclear bomb shelter in Beijing into a community centre, with co-working spaces, a 3-D printing station, a cinema, a hair salon, cafe and gym. The project was funded by the European Union through its Horizon 2020 research programme. More than 10k concrete bunkers, built as part of Mao's Cold War defence strategy, have been transformed into shops, offices and homes; rented out to migrant or low-paid workers at rents that are a third less than for homes above ground. While the government has declared the residential spaces will become illegal by 2017, given estimates of between 150k to 1m residents with no provision for re-location, some believe the policy may be quietly dropped.