Day #89: Hutongs

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I am staying, as a lot of tourists do, in a hostel in one of Beijing's hutongs. These are networks of old-style avenues of low grey buildings, and have much more character than the rest of the city, which is mostly made up of anonymous high-rises.

The hutongs are very distinctive: all the buildings are painted grey, with the gables and windowframes dark red. The streets are narrow but bustling, and not so narrow that the Beijingers are dissuaded from attempting to drive cars down them, and bicycles and scooters hurtle down them with horns pipping and bells ringing furiously. I also often see sellers driving scooters with trailers or carts on the back, shouting as they go along, publicising their wares. Despite all the activity the hutongs are relaxing and refreshing to walk through compared to the main streets.

The hutongs are under threat, because there is currently a housing boom in Beijing and hutongs are an inefficient use of space. The state has introduced a high minimum price per metre squared (thousands of pounds) for companies wanting to buy the space for development, but the threat has not gone away. Part of the problem is that apart from tourists, few people actually want to live in hutongs, as many are old enough not to have their own water supply, bathrooms (the hutongs have communal washrooms and toilets) or even electricity supply.

One that isn't under threat, though, is , which has developed into a busy street lined with food stalls and trendy shops (one in particular, Plastered 8, is a designer t-shirt shop run by an Englishman who emigrated to Beijing and has become very famous and successful). At night it can be hard to find a way through the crowds (again, this doesn't stop the locals driving cars, scooters and bicycles through). We spent the evening wandering through the street and surrounding street markets.

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