Slums in Beijing

Plan your Beijing tour? If you are interested in slum tourism, Beijing is worth your exploring. Not all local sociologists agree that Beijing now has “slums” in downtown area behind all the shining high-rises and futuristic buildings, typically those seen in the big cities in some developed or underdeveloped countries.

However, some Beijing neighorhoods have many features of slums – ramshackle slummy buildings, illegally-built houses, foul-smelling public lavatories, piles of garbage, the hidden troubles for possible fires.

Though poor areas with bad housing, the Beijing-style slums are still safe places strictly controlled by the government, unlike those slums commonly seen as “breeding grounds” for social problems such as drug addiction, alcoholism, crime, high rates of mental illness, and suicide.

I don’t know how many slum dwellers there are in Beijing, nor the complicated system surrounding these informal communities.

Today I just show you around a run-down area between Xingfu Dajie ( Happiness Street ) and Chongwenmen Waidajie (Chongwenmen Outer Street).

The slum walking route starts from the east end of Dongbi Street, going through Dongtang Street and Xitang Street ann finishing at the west end of Xitang Street.

Walking into the east end of the Dongbi Street, a vendor selling cheap stuff – socks, combs, hair knots…