Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Don't Miss
Cycling the Hutong
While it's easy to wander the
hutong
on foot, it's even better to do it on two wheels. With
far less traffic than the main roads, the
hutong
are made for biking, and you'll wheel
through far more of them than you could by walking.
Courtyard Houses
四合院
四合院
Courtyard houses, or
siheyuan,
are the building blocks of the
hutong
world. Some are now
museums, but many are still occupied, although most have been subdivided and now
house a number of residents, rather than just one well-off family as they did in the imperi-
al era. The most prestigious
siheyuan
have big red doors opening onto the courtyard, or a
series of courtyards, and sometimes stone lions out front.
Prince Gong's Residence
恭王府
恭王府
Take a trip to this beautiful
complex
(14 Liuyin Jie
柳荫街
14
号
; adult ¥40, tours incl opera perform-
ance & tea ceremony ¥70; 7.30am-4.30pm mid-Mar-Oct, 8am-4pm Nov-mid-Mar; Ping'anli)
of pavilions
and gardens, perhaps Beijing's most celebrated example of a courtyard house (on a very
large scale!). It was reputedly the model for the house in
Dream of the Red Mansions,
one
of China's best-loved novels.
Getting Lost
Most
hutong
run east-west, although some, like Nanluogu Xiang (
Click here
)
, run
north-south. Many have numerous twists and turns, while others are just single lanes. A
few are almost impossibly narrow, yet more are wide and tree-lined. The only way you'll
discover the sheer variety of
hutong
-land is to get lost in it. Don't worry about getting
back; you're never too far from a main road.
Hutong
-rich neighbourhoods lie around the Drum Tower (
Click here
), Lama Temple (
Click here
)
, west of the
Forbidden City (
Click here
)
and southwest of Tiananmen Square (
Click here
)
.
