Tales from the underground: Posh Beijing compound discovers 400 low-rent tenants living in its basement

Residents of a high-end compound in Beijing have found more than 400 migrants are living in cramped and potentially dangerous conditions in their basement, the most recent case to shed light on how this transient community struggles to make ends meet in China’s capital city.

Questions emerged as many young strangers suddenly started showing up this summer, seemingly from nowhere, in the Julong Garden compound near Gongti, or Workers’ Stadium, a bar area popular among foreigners, China National Radio reported.

During a recent inspection, residents and authorities discovered a hidden world in their basement, where, according to the report, as many as 400 people, mostly migrant workers, lived in cramped dormitories.

In the two-storey basement of No 7 building, the largest in the compound, more than 40 small dank “rooms” had been set up, most of them having multiple bunk beds inside, the report said.

The largest room was home to 36 people.

One of the inhabitants said the monthly rent was about 1,300 yuan (US$190), about a tenth of what a regular tenant would pay in the floors above and perhaps a quarter to a third of what a typical dorm dweller’s monthly wage. Another occupant, who worked at a bar nearby, said all his co-workers were lodgers in the basement as well.