Shanghai completes 'super bunker' for 200,000 people

Jul 30, 2006, 13:35 GMT

Beijing - Shanghai has built an underground 'super bunker' that can shield up to 200,000 of its 18 million people from missile attacks, nuclear radiation and poisonous gas, state media said on Sunday.

The 90,000-square-metre complex consists of shelters and warehouses equipped with water, power and ventilation systems and linked by 15 passageways to the Shanghai subway network and several residential and office buildings, the Shanghai Morning Post said.

The systems are designed to protect people for periods of seven to 15 days, the newspaper quoted Shanghai civil defence officials as saying.

Some sections of the bunker can be used for garages, warehouses or commercial functions during peacetime, it said.

The report did not say who would be given places in the new bunker in the event of an attack on the city.

Taiwan has decided to mass-produce a self-developed cruise missile capable of of hitting Shanghai, Taiwanese media said earlier this month.

Taiwan Premier Yu Shyi-kun warned last month that if China launched a missile attack on Taipei or Kaohsiung, Taiwan would fire missiles at Shanghai.

China sees Taiwan as its breakaway province and has warned that it will recover Taiwan by force if Taipei seeks independence. It has deployed an estimated 700 missiles on its south-east coast targeting Taiwan.

Many large Chinese cities started building underground shelters in the late 1960s, when former leader Mao Zedong reportedly feared an attack by the Soviet Union.

But in the 1980s and 1990s, many parts of the bunkers were used as warehouses, shopping centres and even underground hotels.

Beijing still has a large bunker complex under the city centre, close to the central government offices of the ruling Communist Party.