Vivien arranged for a hutong tour with the tour guide on the return trip from the Great Wall. As for the others in our group, PP told them that the bus would drop them off at Wangfujing shopping street so that they could find their own lunch and get more shopping done.
We got off in the second ring of the city, and met our hutong tour guide at Macdonalds. We did expect to have to walk down the narrow alleys, and the rickshaw ride was a pleasant surprise.
If Vivien and I had decided to explore a hutong on our own without booking a tour, we would probably 1) have to walk a great deal 2) get lost in the narrow, winding lanes and 3) not find out very much about the history of the place. Moreover, looking for a real, 800-year-old Beijing hutong was not an easy thing as these places were fast disappearing. Cramped, unhygenic, fire hazards... most unsuitable with the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the horizon.
A hutong
New door, about 60 years old?
Old door, about 200 years old?
Hutong alley
A hutong family we were about to visit
We explored a touristy kind of hutong, but at least the tour guide gave us some interesting info, and included in this tour was a visit to a family living in a real hutong house, or so our tour guide said. We knocked on a door and the owner of the house admitted us in and was a most gracious host for the next half-hour.
Inside the house. Wow, what a TV!
Too comfy to move. I think.. um, with a TV like that,
I don't mind living in a hutong!
Our tour guide, the girl in green T-shirt,
explaining things to interested tourists
The kitchen
The door
I think Vivien would have been a lot happier if she had stepped through the front door and found herself transported back in time to the Ming Dynasty, in the dirtiest, smelliest hutong courtyard imaginable. I for one did not know what to expect. If I had stepped through the door and came upon a big air-con shopping mall, I think I would have been quite pleased with that.
Hutong Tour Part 1
Rickshaws in a row, waiting for tourists
With the owners of the hutong house
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