The world beneath the city

In this current period of peace, air raid shelters are not a topic of general conversation in Shanghai. But a defense exercise and drill earlier this month revived interest in these shelters and their unique history in the city. On September 15, National Defense Education Day, air raid sirens sounded across the city (except for around Hongqiao International Airport and Pudong New Area). More than 700,000 took part in the drill, helping thousands of residents in selected compounds evacuate their homes and take shelter underground.

Efficient air raid shelters are vital to protect non-combatants in war, experts say. Traditionally civil defense signs guide civilians seeking shelter to underground air raid shelters. But these days people are more probably being directed to take shelter in underground shopping malls, subway stations and subway tunnels.

According to the city authorities, there is now an adequate supply of civilian air raid shelters available in the city. The Jiefang Daily quoted city authorities who explained that the location of the air raid shelters was not secret but there were no plans to publicize them because there was no war at present. If people were interested, they could ask for information from their neighborhood committees.

The first underground air raid shelters in Shanghai were built during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45). They were designed to offer shelter from bombing raids. In peacetime the facilities were left idle though in recent years many have been repaired and renovated and are now acting as shopping malls, entertainment venues, restaurants, warehouses and parking stations. There are now more than 6,000 of these facilities throughout the city with "civil defense" signs.

The D Mall Shopping Center and the Hong Kong Famous Shops Street, underground shopping malls in the People's Square, were originally part of a wartime air raid shelter. Now visitors look for shopping bargains there when more than 70 years beforehand Shanghai people would rush there to escape bombing raids.

The underground shopping mall at the South Square of Shanghai Railway Station was also converted from an air raid shelter. This is a lot busier than the People's Square mall because it serves as a link for passengers transferring from different subway lines or moving between the north and south squares of the station. The underground parking station here was also part of an air raid shelter.

Other former air raid shelters have also been put into use in different ways. The No.2 Tianshan Village on Zunyi Road in Changning district looks like an ordinary city residential compound. But there's a 3.5-meter-high air raid shelter just below the compound that covers nearly 800 square meters. In the event of an air raid, the shelter, which was built in 1978, was designed to accommodate all the residents of the compound. It became a warehouse and then was turned into a canteen. In 2003 a Chinese businessman, who returned to live here from overseas and enjoyed wine, saw the area and converted it into a wine cellar.

In the suburban Fengjing town in Jinshan district, a former underground air raid shelter now serves as a base for patriotic education. It was once the site of the People's Commune, the highest of three administrative levels in rural areas from 1958 to 1982. The People's Commune handled governmental, political and economic functions. Now it is a museum. One wall features photographs of Mao Zedong taken in different periods. Another section entitled "China in the 1950s" displays everyday items like ration coupons, white enamel cups, Phoenix bicycles, Shanghai watches and the notes of a woman textile factory worker. In the backyard of this museum visitors can view an air raid shelter built in 1972 and a MiG-15 fighter jet.

The Chinese government has been giving a high priority to the construction of civil defense facilities. The Civil Air Defense Law of the People's Republic of China, which came into force on January 1, 1997, stated that all newly-built civil constructions in cities should be equipped with underground air raid shelters.