Hutongs and the forbidden city

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Unfortunately I had to take a work trip to Beijing for 2.5 weeks in December. Sometimes life is just plain hard!

So I am sitting in Beijing now trying to take in as much as I can when I am not at work. I only have 4 spare days in Beijing but then will be taking 5 days off at the end and will go to Shanghai for a look around.

Anna couldn't get time off work to come which is a pity but a free trip to China for me is still a free trip to China so I wasn't turning it down!

I have been here a week now, mostly working but did manage to have a look around the old part of the city.

I am in a hotel near Ritan park which is a nice quiet park and not too far from an area of Hutongs. Hutongs are where people in Beijing traditionally lived although not many Hutongs remain as they get cleared for modern high rise buildings. The name Hutong comes from (depending to who you ask) the Mongolian word for well, as there would be a well for water in each Hutong. Most Hutongs were originally built after Genghis Khan invaded then ruled China (the Yuan Dynasty).

After looking around my neighborhood, I took the obligatory trip to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden city. You may notice from the photos that there is a bit of a smog problem in Beijing! Its also a bit on the cold side, with ice over the lakes and moats, I am not too sure how effective moats are at keeping people out when you can just walk across them!

After a look through the city I was harassed by a street vender selling some stuff I didn't really want but ended up buying as the price got lower, then jumped on a rickshaw for a ride through a large area of Hutongs. This was probably the best thing I did that day, he spoke English and gave me a good hour tour, explaining everything as we went. Also he took me to a courtyard house. Houses in the Hutongs are arranged around central courtyards. Rich families would have the building on each side of the courtyard for the children, husband, wife/wives then survants. Poorer families would all be inside one room.
The House I went to was owned by a rich Actress and there certainly wasn't entire families packed into any small rooms, perhaps not a true representation of the average Hutong lifestyle of the average Beijing family.

To cap off the day I had a meal of bamboo worms and beef with chillies at a local restaurant mmmmmm.

Next stop, the Great Wall.

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