TrendWarriors

It was a gorgeous day, I just had to get out.

The concierge at the Wangfujing Grand hotel was kind enough to set me up on a tour of a hutong neighborhood not far from here. I had been curious to see one, since they seem to be all around this neighborhood behind the Forbidden City. I’m not adventurous enough to go into one by myself. These are tight-knit communities, and besides, I’d get lost in the rabbit-warren like maze of narrow alleys and lanes.

The hutongs are the ancient neighborhoods in Beijing. The word “hutong” is derived from the Mongolian language meaning “water well.” These houses were designed to be a multi-family dwellings, although a single wealthy family might occupy one. They say there is security in numbers, and anywhere from four to seven families might live under the connected roof. Each family’s quarters are divided by walls for privacy, and they face out into a common court yard that is shared by all.

Today, hutong neighborhoods are being bulldozed by the thousands in the name of progress. The government was embarrassed by the ghetto-looking appearance of many, and began to tear them down while making improvements for the Olympics. Throughout Beijing, these ancient places of security and family life are being reduced to mournful piles of dust and rubble. A movement began several years ago to save the hutong, as it is now recognized these ancient dwellings are part of the Chinese culture.

A rickshaw driver took an English speaking guide through one of the renovated hutongs. We hadn’t gone far into the neighborhood when I realized why it would NOT have been a good idea for me to go here alone. All of the tall gray walls began to look the same after awhile, I would have been lost for hours! I asked the guide why the hutong were painted gray. She said it was the color of the common people–only the emperor was permitted to use ochre gold or red on his buildings.

We stopped to visit the lovingly renovated home of a well-to-do family. We walked through two entrances and found ourselves in a sunny courtyard. I say they were wealthy because they had a new Ikea kitchen, modern furniture, and electronics in every room. The vines and plants in the arboretum were healthy and blooming. Birds chirped in a cage, and goldfish swam in a huge bowl on the floor in the dining area. It was really an idyllic little space compared to much of what you see in this developing nation. As I stood out in the courtyard admiring the plum tree, it dawned on me there was no noise, no traffic sounds or voices carrying. I thought, “If I lived in Beijing, I would want to live here…right here.”

A little later, we went to another house and listened to the story of another Chinese woman. She had grown up outside of Beijing, but had moved to the hutong with her husband and raised her daughter there. We were offered green tea, apples and peanuts as a snack, which I thought was really kind of her.