Hutongs Are Part Of Beijing's History

  This alley is a hutong. It's where we took our rickshaw ride and had lunch with a family. But hutongs are much more than just an alley or lane. The concept dates back to the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1341). The emperors built the Forbidden City (Palace) in the center of the city of Beijing. There were two kinds of hutongs then. Regular hutangs contained homes for imperial kinsmen and aristocraats and were mostly located east and west of the palace. The simple or crude hutongs, which were located far to the north and south of the palace, were where merchants and other ordinary people lived. The main buildings in the hutong were almost always quadrangles: four houses facing a courtyard with a rather narrow entrance to the courtyard. Many of those quadrangles have deteriorated and some have been torn down and replaced by newer buildings.