10 Communities Of People Who Live Underground As crazy as it sounds, certain people deliberately choose to live underground. Sometimes, these people form entire communities consisting of thousands of people. Usually, they are homeless and have few options available. At other times, they are forced to live underground due to circumstances beyond their control or because they cannot afford aboveground homes. 10 The Rat Tribe Of China Photo credit: aljazeera.com Over one million Chinese citizens (or 5 percent of the people who live in Beijing) live in windowless, overcrowded basements and underground air raid shelters. These people, called the rat tribe ( shuzu ), are ambitious youths who have abandoned their towns and villages to work in Beijing. The air raid shelters were dug during the Sino-Soviet border war of 1969 on the orders of Chairman Mao Tse-tung . After Mao’s death, the new government ordered that the shelters be commerci...