In air raid shelters and tunnels below Beijing, migrant workers, young graduates, and other workers who can’t afford Beijing’s steep housing costs have fashioned homes for themselves in spaces rented out by innovative entrepreneurs. As has been reported earlier this year, the Beijing government plans to reclaim the spaces over the next three years, leaving thousands of people homeless and the hostel owners out of a job.
For VII Magazine, photographer Sim Chi Yin has posted a poignant series of portraits of residents (called the “rat tribe”) in their homes alongside a brief essay.
Read more about the “rat tribe,” and the “ant tribe,” the moniker given to a group of young college graduates scraping by to make a living on the outskirts of Beijing, via CDT.
