Underground city

The underground city is called Jiao Zhuang Hu in Chinese.

The underground city is located 45 miles north of Beijing city and had a militarily important strategic location during the war. During the Japanese invasion of China in 1938, the villagers built an underground system of tunnels to escape the Japanese who killed and burned everything in their path. The system of tunnel is in all 10 miles long and is built to cope with flood, smoke and gas attacks and fires.

The original tunnel was only just two feet high, so it was impossible to walk in it, everyone had to crawl. Now it is excavated and is higher because of the tourism.

The tunnels entrances were very brilliant designed to not be visible from the outside. They could be, for example, a gap in animal food tray, a gap in someone’s mattress, a gap in a fireplace, and so on. The reason was to make the tunnels as invisible as possible, to avoid detection from the Japanese.

A guide is required to get anything from a visit there, otherwise it will just feel like a lot of boring tunnels, unless you also hear all the fascinating stories. There are guides there, which are free, but they only speak Chinese.

There is also a restaurant serving “anti-Japanese food.” There they serve similar food as during the invasion. I didn’t taste.