Did you know that there are currently 70 million cave people living in
China? This is an
astonishing fact brought about by the late Chinese
industrial revolution. Apparently when Chinese
government officials were building
houses for their new
socialist paradise, they came along
literally millions of Chinese living in the
caves along the river
Jangtze.
After counting up, and estimating costs to build the 15 or so cities required to house these people, they decided on a uniquely chinese solution:
Instead of forcing all these people out, they just made paths up to the caves, added heating, electricity, and television masts, and postcodes, gave them all doors, and made the caves a bit more comfortable. Then they went away and let people get on with their lives, but taxed them occasionally.
They figured (and they were right at first) that once these people saw what was on offer in other parts of the country they would slowly begin to move out, and they did. But as time went on, and the prices of houses rose in the rest of the country, and technology made the caves much nicer to live in, it worked out cheaper, and better to live in the caves already there, or even to convert unoccupied caves into new homes.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0WDP/2001_Sept_3/78783509/p1/article.jhtml?term=