Hutong Tour

We went on a hutong tour (alleyways and old style houses) Saturday near Tiananmen Square. It is the first time we have seen Tiananmen and it really is quite big – biggest in the world they say! (There are lots of claims to being the biggest and best in China – every second restaurant you walk into has the best seafood in China!) The actual square was closed Saturday because of the big Africa-Asia summit in town but we could walk around the edges of it and see it. In fact we had to walk around 3/4 of it because of where our taxi dropped us and it took close to 50 minutes!

Many of the hutongs have been razed and replaced with new high rises and apartments. But several in the area near the square have been preserved. We took a pedicab ride - our first - and it is quite a pleasant and sensible way to travel in this area. We visited the home of an old lady who had lived in a courtyard house in the hutong for 48 years, we went to a nursery school, a market and an antique street. Our guide kept talking about the classical style of courtyard house, but the one we visited had been extensively changed with various sheds and outbuildings encroaching on the open area inside. In the classical style this area would have been used for plants and fishponds, but there was not much evidence of that in the one we visited. There were also stacks of coal briquettes which they use for heating. Apparently at one time the house had 3 families and 13 occupants so it would have been very crowded. Now there are only two old people living there, both are former postal service employees who were assigned to the housing during the Mao years and still live there for less than $10 per month. It seemed quite cozy and quiet, but we were told that young people don’t want to live in the hutongs because most of the houses don’t have private toilets and share public toilets in each street.

Later we visited a nursery school that showed more of the classical features of a courtyard house with much of the interior space preserved and several courtyards attached behind the main one. We also walked down a little market street and bought some roasted peanuts and bing bing, a kind of pizza with egg on top instead of tomato sauce. It was quite tasty. We also visited an antique street and found time to buy a couple of prints.

The day was quite blustery and cold with a strong north wind full of dust. Given the strong winds it was better to be in the alleys than out on the main streets where the wind was really whipping. The weather had been quite nice with highs still hovering around 20 but Saturday we would have been glad of a ski jacket. So we will have to make a shopping trip for some warm clothes soon!
First Posted November 6, 2006