شعب الجرذان.. رحلة عبر الأنفاق المحظورة في بكين

A shocking exploration of Beijing's notorious underworld where more than a million people live: a poignant reminder of the human cost of capitalism. In a relatively short period, China has become the world's second-largest economy, and is on the verge of overtaking the United States. In 1978, when China began its economic reforms, its GDP reached US$214 billion; In 2019, it is estimated that it will rise to US$14 trillion. But this rapid growth was achieved thanks to the efforts of the labor force, many of whom were peasants who were transformed into urban migrant labor known as minggong, which Mao Zedong celebrated and credited with helping China achieve its economic miracle. Today, a million of them, along with their descendants, live underground in Beijing in inhumane conditions, where there is no light, no water, and sanitation is almost non-existent. Writer Patrick St. Paul spent two years living among Beijing's "rat population" (shouzhou), in a network of deep tunnels and 20,000 former bomb shelters built during the Cold War. These residents come to Beijing from all over the country in search of work and a better life, but they cannot afford to own homes on their meager salaries. For them, China's dream of prosperity for all is nothing but a bitter illusion.