Historic Huton Tour

Yesterday (Jul 8) we spent the morning touring around the oldest part of Beijing. The Hutong (means alleyways) section was initially settled after Genghis Khan sacked the city in 1215! After being destroyed and rebuilt many times over the following centuries, by the end of the 1800s there were ~2000 of these developments and the number is about the same today after peaking at ~6000 in the 50s.

Basically the area is a network of narrow alleyways between houses designed as a square around a central courtyard. Before the revolution (1949) the bigger ones were owned by wealthy families with 2-3 generations sharing the space. After the revolution, these families mostly left or were forcibly moved out and the state took over the houses and converted them into much smaller units for 6-8 separate families. More recently, some have been re-purchased by a single owner and refurbished to a high standard as a single-family house (typically $2m to buy and another $1m to remodel). So you have some very nice conversions right alongside what are basically very poor ones with no indoor plumbing etc. We got to go into one house that had been remodeled and meet the owner Mr. Wong.

Because the alleys are so narrow. the way to get around is by rickshaw - so we took a ride with an English-speaking tour guide cycling alongside. The 24 y/o tour guide's (English) name was "Candy" and she had taught herself pretty good English - very impressive. She was very taken with Rachel and commented (as have others here) how lucky she was to be living in the USA now.

Pics. show scenes from the tour around Hutong and there is a short video clip of the driver's pet crickets chirping away in their baskets.