Exploring the Hutong!

Rickshaw Ride

One thing that wasn't scheduled in our 'planned tour' was a trip to explore the hutong. The hutong is the traditional housing neighborhood that was common throughout Beijing (& China in general) up until recently. As modern technology and highrise apartment buildings take over, the hutong are being destroyed with fervor. Fortunately, Beijing realized that the hutong really MADE the region and that they needed to preserve some of them for posterity's sake. So, there are a few hutong still standing throughout the region.

Hutong comes from the Mongolian word for 'well' (as in water well). They built these courtyard centric homes around the local water wells. Each hutong is surrounded by a large wall and a beautiful 'portal' or 'gateway'. Entire families live within a hutong--many generations within the same complex.

We were blessed with the opportunity to tour one of the few remaining hutongs not terribly far away from the Forbidden City. We rode rickshaws around the neighborhood and at times were able to walk around and even spent about an hour enjoying tea with a family within their hutong. It was such a nice experience! If you find yourself in Beijing, ensure you schedule a tour through the hutong. I think it was more eye-opening for us than many of the BIG tourist attractions!