Beijing's 'rat race' migrants, unable to afford high rents, live underground
Thousandsare fleeing the increasing cost of renting accommodation in major cities by making their homes in squalid, windowless basements
Zig-zagging left and right through a maze of dark, narrow corridors in the basement of a high-rise apartment block, 35-year-old kitchen worker Hu has joined the many thousands fleeing fastrising property prices by heading underground.
"I can't afford to rent a house," said Hu as he showed off his meagre basement room.
Hu, who guts fish for 2,500 yuan a month at a hotpot restaurant on the street above, added: "If I weren't trying to save money, I wouldn't live here."
Locals have dubbed Hu and his fellow subterranean denizens the "rat race" - casualties and simultaneously emblems of a housing market beyond the government's control. Despite efforts to discourage property speculation and develop affordable housing, a steady stream of job-seekers from the countryside and a lack of attractive investment alternatives have kept prices soaring.
Residential property prices rose 10 per cent in November from the same month of 2012, according to data released last week, and have been setting new records every year since 2009.
Prices in Beijing are rising even faster - 16 per cent a year - with rents climbing 12 per cent a year. The rising costs of accommodation are pushing more and more newly-arrived urbanites underground.
