The question most frequently by tourists to Beijing is: "Where
are the hutongs ?" Beijing's hutongs were built
in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), and at one time numbered in excess
of 6,000. The earliest ones were built in the areas between
Chaoyang and Dongcheng districts, and were quite orderly laid-out.
The hutongs that run from south to north are comparatively
wider than the east-west ones, which can be very narrow. On either
side of a hutong are the siheyuan - traditional
residential compounds with rooms or living quarters around a
courtyard or quadrangle.
Taking Qianmen as a reference point, the hutongs north
of it are wide and built in an orderly way. Those to the south are
narrow and disorderly laid-out. In the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911),
the government kept migrants outside the city center limits for
safety reasons. They set up camp in the Qianmen and Chongwenmen
areas, which led to the commercial development of these two areas.
Many of the migrants were candidates for the imperial examinations.
The presence of so many academics led to the formation of what we
know today as Liulichang Cultural Street. Public entertainment
venues and theaters sprouted in the Tianqiao and Shichahai
areas.
It can be tiring walking the many hutongs in Beijing.
Not only are the hutongs quite widely spread out across
the city these days, but some of the lanes can be extremely narrow,
the narrowest measuring only 80 cm . You would have to walk
sideways to get through! The average length of a hutong is
between 30 and 40 meters.
