Day 13 Beijing

Asia » China » Beijing
August 28th 2008

Published: August 29th 2008

The wind is nearly out of my sails, and we're both ready to come home. Quite frankly, I'm tired of walking. I thought my shoes were great hiking shoes, but they don't last all day on the pavement. CANTONESE LUNCH We head across the street from the Park Plaza for lunch at the Sunshine Kitchen which boasts Cantonese food (a variety of Chinese). It's a place the professionals from the office buildi... Read Full Entry

Photos are below

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Hutong home

The Hutong neighborhoods are the oldest in Beijing, dating back 400 years.

New outside walls

The walls on the outside of the Hutongs south of Tian'an Men Square have been redone and repainted grey.

Cranes at work

Hutong district sign

Cars in Hutong

I was amazed that cars made it down these tiny streets, and even more amazed that the people living in the area could afford them.

Kids at play

Us in a Hutong area

Chinese flags decorate streets

Where we were

Former brothel

The brothel was the tallest building on the street.

Brothel door

Shang Lin Hostel

Some of the old buildings have been converted into hostels and hotels for tourists to get a better glimpse into the area. I don't think I'd be able to find my way to and fro on the twisting, winding streets.

Silk store

Gorgeous stuff, huh?

Silk store along Wangfujing

Japanese supper

We dined at the Japanese restaurant on the lower level of the tower across the street from the Park Plaza. Jesse filled up on sushi, and I died over the ginger-flavored pork.

1st September 2008

wind
yongang.lee

About the Hutong
I noticed that you wondered how could they afford owning a car while living in these old hutong. Actually, these buildings are worth alot of money in beijing, as I know, one middle sized siheyuan ( coutreyard?) worth more than 30,000,000RMB, that's almost 5,000,000 us dollars. People live there are rich .

1st September 2008

Tesha
Wanderer

Rich Hutongs?
Really? Do you live in Beijing? So inside the outer walls the homes are well taken care of and beautiful? We didn't get a chance to tour any actual homes in the hutongs, just peered through outer doorways.

2nd September 2008

wind
yongang.lee

Rich Hutong
I live in beijing. Some of the hutong homes have nice rooms and beautiful, live in there like live in houses:), but some of them are really bad, small space and with 3 generations live together. The point is all this old hutong house are located in downtown, unlike big US cities such as NYC, in beijing, the more closer to downtown, the more expensive the land. Original beijingers living there are all waiting the goverment to rebuilt hutong: not rebuilt the way like what you see, but build high commercial buildings, so they could get a lot of compensation, that's really alot of money. PS,most of hutong living people have several other apartment in beijing.

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Day 13 Beijing

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