Basement living in China Pictures Basement living in China Thousands of Chinese migrant workers, dubbed the "rat tribe," make their homes in Beijing's underground air shelters and basements. Beijing-based photographer Sim Chi Yin photographed residents of these tiny rooms who pay $50 - $110 a month to live in spaces sometimes barely wider than a bed. Sim Chi Yin's "China's Rat Tribe" series is currently on view at United Photo Industries in Brooklyn, N.Y. until June 29, 2013. In this photo, Big Rain, 21, a KTV lounge worker, is seen in his basement room beneath Beijing's north Third Ring Road, Beijing, China, May 9, 2011. Originally from Heilongjiang in China's northeast, he's been in Beijing for the past year. Faced with sky-high property prices, living underground is often the only option for this legion of low-waged migrant workers, who make up one-third of Beijing's estimated 20 million people. Credit: Sim Chi Yin / VII / Courtesy United Photo Industries & Magnum Foundation