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JAKARTA, Indonesia /
The Jakarta Post / Travel / July 19, 2009
By Tifa Asrianti, The Jakarta Post
in Beijing, China
When visiting Beijing, it is the famous tourist attractions such as the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square that come to mind. But if you want to know how Beijing residents live, visiting hutongs.
Hutongs are narrow streets or alleys, most commonly associated with Beijing. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighborhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighborhoods.
Two elderly women sit on the roadside of the Lishi hutong.
JP/Tifa Asrianti
The main buildings in the hutong are almost all quadrangles - a building complex formed by four houses around a quadrangular courtyard. The quadrangles vary in size and design according to the social status of the residents. The big quadrangles of high-ranking officials and wealthy merchants were specially built with roof beams and pillars, all beautifully carved and painted, each with a front and back yard.
However, the ordinary people’s quadrangles were simply built with small gates and low houses. The specially built quadrangles all face the south for better lighting; as a result, a lot of hutongs run from east to west. Between the big hutongs many small ones went north and south for convenient passage.
While some hutongs have had only one name since their creation, others have changed names several times throughout their history.
Men play traditional chess on a roadside. JP/Tifa Asrianti
Names were given to hutongs for various reasons: place, such as Inner Xizhimen Hutong; plants as in Liushu Hutong (Liushu means willow); directions, as in Xi Hongmen Hutong (Xi means west); Beijing idioms such as Yizi Hutong (Yizi is a local term for soap)
Hutongs can also be named with words having positive attributes, such as Xiqing Hutong (Xiqing means happy); related to markets and businesses, such as Yangshi Hutong (Yangshi is a sheep market); temples, such as Guanyinsi Hutong (Guanyinsi is the Kuan-yin Temple) or people’s names, such as Mengduan Hutong.
There are many tour packages offering rickshaw rides or a walk into hutongs. While it is nice to have a guide, it is more fun to immerse yourself in the alleys and feel the warmth of Beijingers.
One hutong my friends and I encountered was Lishi Hutong. Call it serendipity, but the decision to explore the alley was taken in only a split second.
Located near Dongsi subway station, you can find Lishi Hutong as it is the second alley on Dongsibeidajie. The straight alley connects Dongsibeidajie with Chaoyangmennanxiaojie. Besides taking the subway, you could also take bus No.116, 684 or 106 and get off at the South of Dongsilu.
Lishi Hutong, whose name changed from Lüshi Hutong in the Minguo Period, has a large siheyuan with three gates. Both sides of the gates have exquisite brick carvings.
The siheyuan has two courtyards connected by a cloister, a covered passage with one side walled and the other an open arcade. A garden, a pool and pavilions were built in the eastern courtyard. Bin Jun, an official of Wuchang, Hubei Province in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), used to live in the siheyuan.
It was then bought by a Japanese businessman Li Yanqing, who made his fortune by selling rice during the massive earthquake in Japan in 1923. The property passed to and was redesigned by Li Songchen, the son of a big businessman named Li Shanren.
After 1949, the siheyuan housed the Indonesian embassy. It has since been turned into offices for the China Youth Daily newspaper.
As we walked through the alley, we get a glimpse of Beijingers’ daily life. Vendors and people ride on bikes. Children run playfully up and down the alley. The elderly people, who probably witnessed the governance of Mao Tse Tung, sit on the benches, chat with their neighbors, play Chinese chess or simply walk with their children and their dogs. There is a feeling of closeness as the alley is only around 2 meters wide.
Roof Top: Courtesy of Mark Thirwall
Simple siheyuan homes stand side-by-side with large ones. Both are being renovated shown by terracotta bricks and gray roof tiles that were being piled up on the roadside. During the walk, people would stare curiously at my group. But they would nod or smile as we said,”Ni hao” (hello), one of the Chinese expressions we mastered beside “Xie xie” (thank you).
Despite the language barrier, my friend asked the residents for their permission to allow us to photograph them. The residents, mostly the elderly, nodded with a smile. As my friend positioned himself among the residents and wrapped his arms around two ladies, one of them gave him a popsicle. It was a cold red bean popsicle, but we felt a warm sensation as we shared it bite by bite.
You may find a lot of stalls and shops along the alley selling Chinese unique products, such as cigarettes and erguotou and Chinese liquor that my friend bought for 6 Yuan (around 87 US cents) for 500 ml.
As we had no clue about this liquor, we entered a music store and showed the bottle to the shopkeeper Dong Za upon leaving Lishi Hutong. He was surprised to see the bottle.
“You should only take one shot of this. It’s very strong as it usually has 60 percent alcohol by volume. We only drink this in the winter. It will feel best if you dip the bottle in warm water before consuming it,” he said.
Walking into a hutong may seem a simple experience, but it definitely is a lot more special than anything you can find along the capital’s main streets. [
rc]
Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post
When visiting Beijing, it is the famous tourist attractions such as the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square that come to mind. But if you want to know how Beijing residents live, visiting hutongs.
Hutongs are narrow streets or alleys, most commonly associated with Beijing. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighborhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighborhoods.
Two elderly women sit on the roadside of the Lishi hutong.
JP/Tifa Asrianti
The main buildings in the hutong are almost all quadrangles - a building complex formed by four houses around a quadrangular courtyard. The quadrangles vary in size and design according to the social status of the residents. The big quadrangles of high-ranking officials and wealthy merchants were specially built with roof beams and pillars, all beautifully carved and painted, each with a front and back yard.
However, the ordinary people’s quadrangles were simply built with small gates and low houses. The specially built quadrangles all face the south for better lighting; as a result, a lot of hutongs run from east to west. Between the big hutongs many small ones went north and south for convenient passage.
While some hutongs have had only one name since their creation, others have changed names several times throughout their history.
Men play traditional chess on a roadside. JP/Tifa Asrianti
Names were given to hutongs for various reasons: place, such as Inner Xizhimen Hutong; plants as in Liushu Hutong (Liushu means willow); directions, as in Xi Hongmen Hutong (Xi means west); Beijing idioms such as Yizi Hutong (Yizi is a local term for soap)
Hutongs can also be named with words having positive attributes, such as Xiqing Hutong (Xiqing means happy); related to markets and businesses, such as Yangshi Hutong (Yangshi is a sheep market); temples, such as Guanyinsi Hutong (Guanyinsi is the Kuan-yin Temple) or people’s names, such as Mengduan Hutong.
There are many tour packages offering rickshaw rides or a walk into hutongs. While it is nice to have a guide, it is more fun to immerse yourself in the alleys and feel the warmth of Beijingers.
One hutong my friends and I encountered was Lishi Hutong. Call it serendipity, but the decision to explore the alley was taken in only a split second.
Located near Dongsi subway station, you can find Lishi Hutong as it is the second alley on Dongsibeidajie. The straight alley connects Dongsibeidajie with Chaoyangmennanxiaojie. Besides taking the subway, you could also take bus No.116, 684 or 106 and get off at the South of Dongsilu.
Lishi Hutong, whose name changed from Lüshi Hutong in the Minguo Period, has a large siheyuan with three gates. Both sides of the gates have exquisite brick carvings.
The siheyuan has two courtyards connected by a cloister, a covered passage with one side walled and the other an open arcade. A garden, a pool and pavilions were built in the eastern courtyard. Bin Jun, an official of Wuchang, Hubei Province in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), used to live in the siheyuan.
It was then bought by a Japanese businessman Li Yanqing, who made his fortune by selling rice during the massive earthquake in Japan in 1923. The property passed to and was redesigned by Li Songchen, the son of a big businessman named Li Shanren.
After 1949, the siheyuan housed the Indonesian embassy. It has since been turned into offices for the China Youth Daily newspaper.
As we walked through the alley, we get a glimpse of Beijingers’ daily life. Vendors and people ride on bikes. Children run playfully up and down the alley. The elderly people, who probably witnessed the governance of Mao Tse Tung, sit on the benches, chat with their neighbors, play Chinese chess or simply walk with their children and their dogs. There is a feeling of closeness as the alley is only around 2 meters wide.
Roof Top: Courtesy of Mark Thirwall
Simple siheyuan homes stand side-by-side with large ones. Both are being renovated shown by terracotta bricks and gray roof tiles that were being piled up on the roadside. During the walk, people would stare curiously at my group. But they would nod or smile as we said,”Ni hao” (hello), one of the Chinese expressions we mastered beside “Xie xie” (thank you).
Despite the language barrier, my friend asked the residents for their permission to allow us to photograph them. The residents, mostly the elderly, nodded with a smile. As my friend positioned himself among the residents and wrapped his arms around two ladies, one of them gave him a popsicle. It was a cold red bean popsicle, but we felt a warm sensation as we shared it bite by bite.
You may find a lot of stalls and shops along the alley selling Chinese unique products, such as cigarettes and erguotou and Chinese liquor that my friend bought for 6 Yuan (around 87 US cents) for 500 ml.
As we had no clue about this liquor, we entered a music store and showed the bottle to the shopkeeper Dong Za upon leaving Lishi Hutong. He was surprised to see the bottle.
“You should only take one shot of this. It’s very strong as it usually has 60 percent alcohol by volume. We only drink this in the winter. It will feel best if you dip the bottle in warm water before consuming it,” he said.
Walking into a hutong may seem a simple experience, but it definitely is a lot more special than anything you can find along the capital’s main streets. [rc]
Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post
