Metropolis of Heaven

For thousands of years, Beijing had been ruled by an emperor, known as the Son of Heaven and Beijing had been the emperors’ domain. Like many other imperial cities in China, Beijing had been strictly constructed based on theory from the book of Kaogongji. An imperial city had been the physical embodiment of a governing power and at the center of its grid system, there had always stood a magnificent palatial complex to impress its subjects. All of the property, people, and lives within the city had belonged to the Son of Heaven. Many hundreds of years after the imperial era, the borderlines between countries are now blurred. Beijing is the center of the world with its economic, political and cultural establishment, but there is a minor obstacle for new settlers in the city, which echoes the remnants of a doctrine from the Son of Heaven. During the imperial era, land and anything above the ground belonged to the Son of Heaven. This was met with resistance from the new global settlers, to which the Beijing government promptly devised a new interpretation of the controversial doctrine, “Anything below the ground level is exempt from any rule by the Son of Heaven.” With this opportunity, the settlers started to excavate the earth to find uncharted territories where the rule of the Son of Heaven does not extend. As far as sufficient supply of air, power, and light are provided, people can enjoy their lives in a weather-proof underground space. Fiber-optic synthetic reeds are used as the main medium to capture and convert solar energy into power and light sources. The new settlement is densely covered with custom designed synthetic reeds. Below that, the reeds are weaved into three-dimensional grid structures networking the entire underground space. Like growing grass roots, the underground infrastructure rapidly stretched horizontally and vertically to parallel the scope of the above ground Beijing. The original Beijing citizens notice the spread of the underground settlement. One after another, all citizens want to experience the underground life as well. When old buildings are demolished, they are rebuilt downward instead of upward. Beijing finally is the Metropolis of Heaven for all “evolved” mankind.