As tensions between China and Japan in the China Sea make headlines, it's easy to believe all the fuss is from a couple little islands atop a big pile of petroleum reserves.
Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. The Japanese invaded China twice over the last 81 years and half the 20 million people killed by the Japanese during World War II were Chinese.
China says 35 million of its citizens were killed or wounded during the 14 year Japanese occupation and numbers like this don't just slip to the past.
Starting in 1931, China fiercely fought the invasion and carved a series of tunnels through living rock across much of the eastern part of the country. Today these tunnels look out over modern and prosperous Chinese cities filled with millions of Chinese who gaze back into a past they're not likely to forget anytime soon.
Hoping to understand the ancient enmity between China and Japan we looked to urban explorer Darmon Richter who brings us inside the tunnels and bunkers with pictures from his site The Bohemian Blog.
This portion of bunkers overlooks Qingdao, a place many consider China's most beautiful city. But like the rest of China, Qindao overlooks its past as it looks to the future and offers some context about the disputes happening in the region today.
Some things are just a bit more than they seem.
The climb up Fu Shan Mountain towards Dragonback Ridge takes around an hour, and allows for breathtaking views out over the city of Qingdao and the ocean beyond.
We were still a little way off the rumored entrance to the tunnels, when we spotted the first gun turret - looming out of the mist above us.
On closer inspection the turret was sealed, with a passage leading into the back of it from deep within the mountain.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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