Beijing’s ancient alleyways set to continue bursting with life
Print Edition
GU Chen has slept and worked in the same one-room apartment in Beijing’s ancient hutong neighborhood of Beixinqiao all his life.
Most mornings, he walks a few feet to pull aside drapes covering the windows on the doors facing the street.
Then, the 58-year-old settles onto the concrete stoop fronting his shop and gets to work repairing electronic appliances for his neighbors.
Rent has increased fivefold in the past decade, but Gu still charges customers as little as US$6 for each repair.
“It is still affordable here compared to the modern apartments, and the one-story level means ... I don’t have to pay additional rent for a separate shop,” Gu said.
Gu’s home is on the outer edge of a courtyard dwelling with curved tiled rooftops, hundreds of which form networks of alleyways in the heart of China’s capital.
The narrow streets come alive each morning with residents selling breakfast snacks from small stalls. Fruit vendors, butchers and convenience shop owners start their days by setting stools out on the street so they can easily converse with passers-by.
Hundreds of years ago, stately red doors lining the alleys led to spacious courtyards decorated with carved roof beams and painted pillars. Even commoners’ homes featured open spaces in the middle.
But since the mid-20th century, especially during the “cultural revolution (1966-76),” many hutong homes were taken from their original owners and eventually bulldozed.
Nowadays, with space scarce in the city of 21.5 million people, most hutong courtyards are filled with makeshift wood-panel shacks or higher-quality concrete rooms — allowing multiple households in each courtyard.
The people who live in each nook may not be related, but they are very close.
“There is no privacy here, everyone sees your comings and goings and overhears your conversations,” said Luo Pu, a young man living in an alley near the Drum Tower, a historic landmark used to keep time during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
“My son, his wife and my grandson live a few courtyards down from ours. We see them every day,” said Wu Xiaoming, a man in his late 50s who sells homemade cornbread to neighbors in the Beixinqiao hutong near the entertainment district.
In the evening, after fixing a washing machine, Gu loads it onto his small car — really a metal shed on three wheels — to deliver to a neighbor.
Bicycles and motorbikes are the best ways to get around the disorienting alleyways, which can resemble mazes.
Although many of the refined old homes are now rundown, gentrification has begun to transform some of the neighborhoods — with craft breweries and art galleries cropping up.
The changes have made residents optimistic about their neighborhoods’ future: many surviving hutong have recently been targeted for preservation work.
“China changes quickly, but it is often for the better,” Gu said. “If I keep working hard, we will be fine.”
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