The Qianmen hutong area at twilight.(Photo: Ruth Fresmon/NYTimes.)
Hutongs, narrow lanes or alleys lines by courtyard housing, form traditional residential fabric in the historic center of Beijing. The Hutong — the term is derived from the Mongolian word hottog (water well) — came into being during the Yuan dynasty (1271 to 1368), when China was absorbed into the Mongol Empire. Most of Beijing’s remaining Hutongs date back to the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644), which established Beijing as its capital city in 1421 on the site of the original Yuan capital.(From NYTimes.)
Starting in the 1960s, however, as Beijing’s population soared, three or four extended families were often packed into a courtyard house that had once been occupied by a single family. (Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times)
One of Beijing’s many labyrinthine hutongs — neighborhoods made up of alleys lined with courtyard houses that wind away from the boulevards and public squares. (Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times)
A man beside his partly demolished home in one of Beijing’s classic hutong neighborhoods. The rapid encroachment of the modern city has preservationists alarmed. (By Nicolai Ouroussoff for NYTimes)
Liu Heung Shing, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, owns a siheyuan off a hutong just north of the Forbidden City. “Chinese believe that in a siheyuan you can feel the spirit of the earth,” he said, “because unlike in a high-rise apartment, you step on it every day.” (Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times)
The hutong neighborhoods date to the 13th century, when Beijing’s chessboard grid was created. The layout of the neighborhoods, with public life spilling into alleyways and private life hidden behind brick walls, remained largely unchanged in the first decade or so after the Communist takeover in 1949. (Photo: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times)
Men play Chinese Chess on a new sidewalk in the Qianmen area, one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. Plans for development have created a battleground in this area known for its opera houses, provincial guilds and bordellos. (Aaron and Mimi Kuo-Deemer for NYTimes.)
The entrance of the Côté Cour hotel.
