January 12, 2007

Since Alyssa was running a fever and feeling just generally awful all over, Jeff volunteered to stay at the hotel with her and read a book while the rest of us went on the hutong tour in Beijing this morning. It was probably a very wise choice as she slept most of the day away. Before we left for China, people told my children that they were going on the trip of a lifetime; one they would always remember. I'm sure Alyssa will always remember this trip, but I'm not so sure it will be with the fond memories that most people were thinking she would have.

Mr. Meticulous showed up with his pristine van, so I guess our spilled water yesterday on the floor of the van didn't traumatize him too badly. I'm ready to just ride a city bus to avoid having to constantly worry about the kids touching anything. Since our hotel is already in downtown Beijing, we thankfully didn't have to ride too far in the van today to get to where the hutong tours start.

This tour was something I have always wanted to do, but was a bit disappointed after going on it, because like any tourist type trip, it seemed very commmercial and not real authentic. When Jeff and I were here for Ben's adoption 6 years ago, we were able to walk through hutong areas near our hotel and enjoy peeking through open gates at people playing cards, hanging clothes or cooking outdoors in their courtyards. What we saw today was instead a spit and polished version of what the tour companies wanted us to see, with freshly painted alleyway walls, and every gate to courtyards closed. Other than our stop at a school and at a home, we didn't really get to view what a hutong neighborhood really feels like.

If you are unaware of what a hutong is, it is a narrow alleyway originally designed for only pedestrians and rickshaws or pedicabs. According to chinadaily.com,

The word hutong came from the Mongolian language about 700 years ago. The original Mongolian word was hottog, meaning "water well." In other words, it means a place where people live, because people always gather where there is water. Today in Beijing, the word hutong means a small alleyway or lane. They are typical of the old part of Beijing and are formed by lines of siheyuan (a compound made up of rooms around a courtyard ) in which most Beijing residents used to live.

In old China, there were clear definitions of what was a street and what was a lane. A 36-metre-wide road was called a big street and an 18-metre-wide road was called a small street. A 9-metre-wide lane was called a hutong. Most of the hutongs in Beijing run east-west or north-south. This is because most siheyuan were built along such axes according to the rules of feng shui and to take in more sunshine and resist cold winds from the north. Of course, not all hutongs follow the straight and narrow. There are also slant hutongs, half hutongs and blind hutongs. Beijing's shortest hutong is just 10 metres long and the narrowest is only about 40 centimetres wide. Some hutongs have more than 20 turns. As such, they are often a maze through which it is fascinating to wander, as long as you're not afraid of getting lost.

continued...

Photo credit