Inside, the corridors are blocked by rickety wardrobes and improvised kitchens. The lightbulbs flickered their last years ago, and the windows are thick with grease. Behind the doors, the tiny rooms are cluttered to bursting point, often occupied by whole families. There are no showers or kitchens.
Toilets are communal and often filthy.
This is not some housing complex for Beijing's hundreds of thousands of migrant workers. Nor is it a state refuge for the fast-growing legions of unemployed. And it is typical of what is going on across the land. Many of China's university teachers are resentful of the way the state is treating them. The younger teachers are leaving the profession in droves.