Want a hutong with that?

Beijing, July 4

I have used the word hutong a few times in these notes but I have not explained what a hutong is. Everybody in the central areas of Beijing is very familiar with hutongs. It seems to be a word that has multiple meanings. A hutong is a particular architectural style. There are hutong districts and streets are named as "ABC Hutong" and other meanings probably exist. Traditionally a hutong is a style of residence, a way of building a place to live. Like all houses, hutongs come in different styles. For example a bungalow is simply a house built on one floor, what other features it has depends on the design. The same is true of hutongs. A hutong is a courtyard houses. Instead of having the green space of a house around the outside as is done in North America, the green space is in the middle.

Think of a square. Now cut a square (or rectangular) hole in the middle of the square, the hole should be about 50% or more of the total area of the square. Cut a narrow pathway from outside to inside in the centre of the south side of the square. That's the basic floor plan. Hutongs were orginally used as dwellings for multi-generational homes. Once the square had supporting walls along the edges of the remaining part of the square, and a roof to protect the inhabitants, the space between the walls could be divided and sub-divided in many different ways. Every home, every room would have access to a view of the internal courtyard. Rooms might also have a door to the courtyard or they might not. Every room would be protected from the elements, especially the wind, and from bandits, by the strong outside walls and roof.

Now we will move to a view of a hutong district. Think of each hutong house as a building block (I know there is no hole in the middle, but ignore that.) Arrange the building blocks in orderly rows so each front door faces south. If you imagine it correctly or use enough building blocks you should get a pattern of rows of blocks that goes from east to west, each row has a little space between it and its neighbours. Those spaces are the alleyways, the "streets" of the hutong district. Every once in a while there will be a narrow alley running north and south so it is possible to get from one "street" to another without having to go to the end of the row. Quite often there will be a public toilet at the intersection of the east-west street and the north-south alley. (You are never far from a public toilet in a hutong district.) They are cleaned regularly, top and bottom. In days past the human sewage was taken to the fields outside the city and used to fertilize the crops being grown to sell in the city. This is a very practical arrangement that saves an enormous amount of water compared to developed countries use of flush toilets. I don't know if that still happens.

Many hutong dwellers in cities converted part of their living space, often the south side since it had an outside door, into commercial space. Some of these stores in hutongs are very narrow, two meters perhaps. The owners can touch opposite walls with their hands. Not all are that narrow but public business gets done in spaces North Americans would consider medieval. Probably because they are so small these shops tend to specialize in one or a very few products, tofu shops, noodle shops, children's clothes, hats, shoes, etc. Some shops, like the tofu shops, hand out what they sell to customers through a hatch or over a half door.

If you live in a hutong, even temporarily you should walk around a lot, get to know your neighbours, both residents and commercial operations. You may discover several noodle shops for example close to where you live. Prices tend to be very similar so people go to the one they like. Their next door neighbours may go to a different one based on personal preferences. On the fringes of a hutong district, along the big main roads, the buildings are often higher, two or three or four stories. In these cases the bottom floor of the building is usually the commercial space and living quarters are above.

Da Zha Lan Xi Jie, the street the hotel is on is much wider than most hutong alleys. I suspect a number of hutong dwelling were removed to make it. The colourful bright street view picture is Dazhalan Xi Jie with the usual morning traffic. You could drive two cars down it side by side as you might be able to see in one of the two pictures. Many hutong alleyways are barely wide enough for one car at a time. Many take only two or three wheeled traffic and pedestrians, cars do not fit. The other picture is a more typical hutong street in a residential neighbourhood: a gray painted outside wall with a couple of windows and some bikes and trikes parked against the wall.