CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- Chongqing, known as a city of mountains, offers unique and stunning city views both overground and underground.

It is estimated that there are more than 1600 air-raid shelters in urban Chongqing, which cover an area of about 1.1 million square meters and constitute a majestic underground world.

At the end of 2018, the Chongqing Civil Air Defense Office started to implement the Shancheng Dongtian civil defense engineering project, adopting differentiated and specific policies for the upgrading and improvement of air-raid shelters in Chongqing. The past five years have witnessed the new Chongqing with new scenarios, new business forms, and new lifestyles in air-raid shelters.

Air-raid shelters are havens for citizens in wartime. Instead of going away as time passes, air-raid shelters have made an indelible mark on Chongqing.

In this age of peace, air-raid shelters no longer shoulder heavy responsibility and they offer infinite possibilities: transformed into Guihuayuan Gas Station, Underground City Hot Pot, Junge Book House... These new air-raid shelters constitute an underground ring road, contributing to the construction of a large transport channel in Chongqing. New forms of business are booming in the former air-raid shelters, preserving historic memories and making air-raid shelters invitingly unique.

Taking advantage of urban renewal, the ‘reborn’ air-raid shelters have become a new popular landmark and leisure destination with their rich business forms. With the accelerated development of Chongqing as an international consumption center, the ‘shelter economy’ has gradually become a new highlight of Chongqing's tourism development and a highly recognizable new landmark, with an annual number of visitors to air-raid shelters in Chongqing exceeding one million.

Urban renewal is about urban vitality and the new lifestyles of residents. The promotion of the integrated development of air-raid shelter protection and utilization projects and tourism consumption projects have provided Chongqing people with a new culture and a new way of life. A large number of air-raid shelters in Chongqing have been transformed into life and culture carriers, such as education halls, museums, passageways, bookstores, and art spaces, playing an important role in benefiting Chongqing people and making positive contributions in serving people's livelihood and the upgrading of the city.

The new stories of reborn air-raid shelters in Chongqing are more than new scenarios, new business forms, and new lifestyles in air-raid shelters. They are becoming the new carriers of historical resources and urban culture, and the new name cards of Chongqing, and improving the functions and quality of the city. (All photographed by Liu Song) 

(Translated by Yuki, Fathom Language Limited)