Expecting another large influx of tourists this past Labor Day holiday, urban patrol officers were dispatched to the entrances to Nanluoguxiang. Unfortunately, tourists weren’t deterred by the officers’ presence. Despite the new regulations, police allowed tour groups to enter the Nanluoguxiang hutong, but only on the condition they split up into smaller groups.

As a result, Nanluoguxiang received more than 70,000 visitors on the Saturday, an amount that increased to 90,000 on Sunday. The eight meter-wide hutong usually receives 30,000 visitors on weekdays, and 50,000 on weekends.

According to the China National Tourism Agency, the small hutong is only designed to accommodate 17,000 people at any one time.

On April 25, local authorities had banned tour groups from the Nanluoguxiang hutong to reduce the risk to the historic buildings and the impact on local residents.

Having allowed the new regulation to be subverted, Dongcheng authorities reported that the crowd situation in Nanluoguxiang went well. Crowds were said to have flowed smoothly, and authorities reported of no complaints about security and service during the weekend.

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Located in Shalao Hutong, in Beijing’s Andingmen area in Dongcheng District, the newly discovered, albeit unfinished, illegal structure was three floors, or ten meters (32.8 feet) deep, with a total floor space of some 700 square meters (2,296 square feet).

Walls and pillars were strengthened with reinforced concrete, and the underground complex resembles a pyramid: the second-level was between two and three times larger than the first underground level. The third level was unfinished.

Built under two adjacent bungalows owned by a 50 year-old man named Li, construction was hidden from neighbors by hiring workers from midnight to dawn, and using shovels to dig the vast underground chamber rather than draw attention by using heavy machinery. Neighbors eventually became suspicious and reported Li to the authorities in October.

Li had big plans for his underground complex: he wanted to use the vast underground space as a garage, to store cars from his car rental service. In its current state, about 50 cars could be stored in the space, but he wanted to build it big enough for 100.

Basement extensions are illegal in Beijing, and no building permits are granted for such renovations. Builders instead rely upon guanxi (special relationships) to help avoid authorities.

Illegal basements in Beijing made headlines last February when one such illegal basement built by a representative of China’s National People’s Congress collapsed and opened up a massive sinkhole that forced 15 local residents to be evacuated from their homes.

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