Hutong is a kind of typical ancient city alley in Beijing. Many of them were built during the Yuan (1206-1341), Ming (1368-1628) and Qing (1644-1908) dynasties surrounding the Forbidden City. During these dynasties, the emperors planned the city and arranged the residential areas according to the etiquette systems of the Zhou Dynasty to establish supreme power.

History of Hutong
Before Jin dynasty (in the 12 century), there were no Hutongs in Beijing, just streets, roads and district. In the early 13 century, a Mongolian tribe from the north became very strong. Led by Genghis Khan, the Mongolians occupied Beijing. In 1260, Kubla Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan established Yuan Dynasty. Kubla Khan set Beijing as the capital city. Unfortunately, the old city was destroyed during the war. So they had to rebuild it. In old China, all the structures and roads were required to be symmetrical. First, they had to find a center, and then built a regular square city. After construction was completed, they asked all the residents who lived in the old city to move to the new one. Thus the Hutong was formed.

Discover the name source of Hutong?

The word "Hutong" is said to originate from the Mongolian language, which is one of China's minority language. In the northern grasslands communities tended to live around wells, so “hot” (almost the same pronunciation of “well” in Mongolian), came to mean a town. And Hudu or Hudun are variants of it. Later it was applied to Small Street. The sound gradually changed to hutong.

Small streets in Beijing began to be called Hutong after the "Nuzhen" people from the northeast, who founded the Jin Dynasty, captured the city in 1127 and make it their capital. (Their language has similarities to Mongolian.) The custom became more widespread when the city was the capital of the Yuan Dynasty after the Mongol conquest.

Discover abundant culture of Beijing Hutong
In many people's minds, Beijing is associated with the hutongs. They are an important part of the culture and the way of life of Beijingers, especially the older generation.

Old Hutong custom
Walking through the hutongs, it is common to see groups of elderly citizens sitting together playing cards or Chinese chess. In the early mornings and evenings, they gather to practice traditional forms of exercise such as taijiquan as well as to dance and sing folk songs or Peking Opera arias. Also important to hutong life is the traditional foods being sold in carts or small stalls. These change according to the season, from flavoured ice in the summer to long kebabs of crab apples covered in sugar in the autumn and winter.

Hutong and literature
So important are the hutongs to the culture of Beijing that there have been many operas, plays and films about them. And in numerous hutongs are scattered the residences of famous personages, and these places are repositories.

• Laoshe (1899 - 1966)
  Laoshe , a well-known playwright is just one of them. He is one of 20th century China's greatest novelists and playwrights. Laoshe was born in a small lane, in the west part of the city. The memory of his childhood was so dear and impressive that after he'd been away from Beijing for more than 20 years, he still clearly remembered his birthplace, and he made it the backdrop of his novel "the Four Generations Under One Roof". Many famous operas and dramas are based on the themes of the " hutong life". His "Teahouse" is set in what is often the focal point of a hutong community and brings together several characters from the old streets of Beijing to discuss the problems of traditional society.

A more modern love song for the hutongs is Zhang Yang's "Shower" (1999) about a tradtional bath house where men from the community gather to drink tea, receive massages, fight crickets and escape their marital problems. The film laments the loss of such old ways of life as the hutongs are being knocked down to make way for modern blocks of flats.

Announceing the formation of the Hutong

Hutong means a passage between rows of Siheyuan courtyard house, the traditional residence of Beijingers, each consisting of rectangle courtyard surrounded by one-storeyed tile-roofed houses. The quadrangles varied in size and design according to the social status of the residents. The big quadrangles of high- ranking officials and wealthy merchants were specially built with roof beams and pillars all beautifully carved and painted, each with a front yard and back yard. However, the ordinary people's quadrangles were simply built with small gates and low houses.

In fact, Hutong is passageways formed by many closely arranged quadrangles of different sizes. The specially built quadrangles all face the south for better lighting; as a result, a lot of hutongs run from east to west. Many small hutongs went north and south for convenient passage between the big hutongs. Thus Hutong formed.

How many kinds of Hutong in Beijing?

When the Hutong was fist built, you can find streets and Hutongs. At that time, there was a clear definition for a street or a lane. A 36-metre-wide road was called a big street. An 18-meter-wide one was called a small street. And a 9-metre-wide lane was called a Hutong. Later, hutong can be normally divided into two kinds.

• One kind of hutongs, usually referred to as the regular hutong, was near the palace to the east and west and orderly arranged along the streets. Most of the residents of these hutongs were imperial relatives and aristocrats.
• Another kind, the simple and crude one, was mostly located far to the north and south of the palace. The residents were merchants and other ordinary people.

There are at present some 6000 Hutong in Beijing. In the wider ones two buses can pass. The narrowest spot is the southern end of Gaoxiao Hutong, through which only one person can walk at a time. The longest, Rongxian (Embroidery Floss) Hutong, is two kilometers long. The shortest is Yichi Dajie (One-foot street), which is actually twenty meters long. The gray-tiled houses and deep alleys crossing with each other in identical appearance like a maze, you will find it much fun to walk through but be care not to lost yourself.

Stories behind Hutongs
Beijing's hutongs are more than just architecture. They are the people who live there. They are a museum of Beijing's folk custom and they are a witness to the city's history. Many hutongs have a story behind them. Near the Forbidden City in the heart of old Beijing is a hutong called "the Weaving Girl" named after the daughter of a god who descended to the human world with her sisters to swim in a river and then proceeded to fall in love with a cowherd. Her enraged father, the Celestial Emperor, took the girl back and separated the couple with the Milky Way.
On the opposite side of the Forbidden City, there used to be a Cowherd Bridge. Flanked by the cowherd and the weaving girl, the suggestion was that the feudal emperors living in the Forbidden City were the sons of Heaven.

Another example is a bell tower in the north part of Beijing. The bell in it served as a watch for the city. It told people when curfew was, or when officials should go to court. The bell was made of iron in the Ming dynasty about 600 years ago. It didn't sound loud enough to reach the whole city, so the emperor ordered the master who was famous for making bells to make a new bronze bell. The master tried his best, but failed. None of the bells he made was good enough. However, the deadline was approaching. He had to make a last attempt. The master's daughter was worried. She knew that if her father couldn't finish the bell on time, the whole family would be killed. Having no other alternatives, she threw herself into the melting bronze. A nice looking, good quality bell was made. Its sound reached the whole city.

Announcing the condition of present Hutong
At the end of the Qing Dynasty , many newly formed hutongs with irregular houses appeared outside the city, while many old ones lost their former neat arrangement with frequent civil wars and foreign invasions. The city of Beijing deteriorated, and the conditions of the hutong worsened. Quadrangles previously owned by one family became a compound occupied by many households.

After the founding of the people's Republic of China in 1949, hutong conditions improved. In recent years, the houses in many hutongs have been pulled down and replaced by modern buildings. Many hutong dwellers have moved to new housing. The hutong today is fading into the shade for both tourists and inhabitants. However, in the urban district of Beijing houses along hutongs still occupy one third of the total area, providing housing for half the population, so many hutongs have survived. In this respect, we regard Beijing as an ancient yet modern city.