A Popular Cooling Spot in China is an “Underground Air-raid Shelter! It is so well-equipped that it is hard to believe it is underground!

Air-raid shelter becomes a popular spot

Air-raid shelter is very popular

As many as 280 tables are lined up in a long, narrow space (about 4,500 m2) that stretches more than 500 meters and is about the size of 20 tennis courts. What people enjoy over drinks is hot pot from a popular restaurant in Chongqing, central China. But the restaurant is not above ground.

It is in an air-raid shelter. The air-raid shelter is underground, where the temperature is about 25 degrees Celsius year-round. In Chongqing, the air-raid shelter has become a popular place for cooling off due to the heat wave, which has been near 40°C every day since late July. It was about two years ago that the owner of a hot pot restaurant opened the restaurant, taking notice of the large number of people who came to Chongqing to escape the summer heat. Hot pot is a specialty of Chongqing, so it seems to be a big success,” said a reporter stationed in China for a major media outlet.

The city of Chongqing has opened about 40 air-raid shelters in the city to citizens and merchants as a countermeasure against the intense heat. It is not only hot pot restaurants that are thriving with the people gathered in the bomb shelters. There are bookstores with a wide selection of books and beauty salons with professional scissors ……. Not only in Chongqing, but also in China, there are bomb shelters so well equipped that they could be called underground cities, with movie theaters and table tennis courts. Chinese journalist Zhou Laiyu explains.

It was during the 1960s, when tensions with the Soviet Union were rising, that air-raid shelters were built in large numbers throughout China. They were designed to evacuate not only civilians but also senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party, so they were spacious and luxurious inside. In the end, however, a large-scale armed conflict with the Soviet Union did not take place, and the building was rendered useless for many years. In recent years, the heat wave caused by global warming has continued, and there has been a gradual movement to reuse the building as a place to cool off.

Never Miss a Business Opportunity

In addition to being a summer resort, the economic recession is also behind the development of various businesses in bomb shelters. Mr. Zhou continues.

The Chinese economy is in dire straits due to the collapse of real estate prices. The authorities are trying to use the bomb shelter business as a catalyst for economic revival. They are encouraging people to open new stores by renting out space in bomb shelters at low rents. To a foreigner, the sight of people rushing to an old bomb shelter may seem comical. However, I think the Chinese people’s shrewdness in finding business opportunities in such places may serve as a reference for Japanese people who are concerned about what others think of them.

China’s economy, which has not been performing well above ground, is about to boom again underground.