Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The origins of the word
'hútòng'
are hazy. It was originally a Mongolian term, and could have
referred to a passageway between
gers
(or 'yurts'), the traditional Mongol tents; or it might
come from the word
'hottog'
(a well) - wherever there was water in the dry plain around
Běijīng, there were inhabitants.
Walk through the once vibrant neighbourhood directly due east of Qianmen Dajie (near
where Lìqún Roast Duck Restaurant is located), and you'll get a vivid impression of how
many
hútòng
are clinging on for dear life in the face of property development. Neverthe-
less, the area around Dazahlan Xijie, itself a
hútòng,
still has many alleys left, although
they lack the aesthetic value of their posh counterparts to the north.
But you can find
hútòng
of one sort of another in all Běijīng's neighbourhoods, even if
some are relatively recent creations and are basically low-level housing rather than any-
thing worthy of preservation. Wherever you choose to plunge into
hútòng
land, you'll be
treading streets that have hundreds of years of history behind them.
Some of the grandest
sìhéyuàn
are occupied by high-ranking CCP cadres. Mao'er Hutong of
Nanluogu Xiang is known for the number of senior officials who live there, while former
Premier Zhao Ziyang spent the last 15 years of his life under house arrest in a courtyard
once occupied by Empress Cixi's hairdresser.
