Hutong and the Rickshaw

To see the real Beijing, you have to go to the Hutongs...
To go to the Hutongs, the most nostalgic way is by Rickshaw...

Hutong, a Mongolian phrase, refer to the most unique traditional Beijing back street lanes. Since the very ancient times, Beijing, as one of the most prominent ancient capitals in China, had been very scrupulous with its city planning, i.e. the layouts of Hutongs, which amount to more than 7000 in numbers riddling the whole city in every corner.

By sitting on a rickshaw zigzagging through the greyish hutongs, it seems that the history is flashing back like lively slideshows in black and white, right in front your eyes. The longest Hutong in the city is called Dong Xi Jiao Min Xiang, c.a. 3.5 miles long, whereas the shortest one could be as short as only a dozen feet in length. Some Hutongs are wide like streets, yet some could be as narrow as only 2 feet in width.

In fact, the hutongs, leading mostly eastward and westward, are the passages between walls of the old Beijing courtyards ( also called Si He Yuan ). The size of the Si He Yuan depends mostly on the fortune of the family living inside. Generally speaking, when we are passing by on the rickshaw, the higher its wall appears, the richer the family was in the old time. Thus the variety of the families results in the variety of the width and length of the hutongs.

With the cropping-up of more and more skyscrapers and glistening glass facade buildings in Beijing, the awe-inspiring, harmonious and reminiscent way of living in hutongs is gradually fading away into the history books or the depth of memories.

Grasp this last chance, and witness the living history there...

Written by
Yin Shuo
Beijing Office
Regent China Tours
xy06110101@hotmail.com