VIDEO Exploring the Hutong

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[youtube=uq-6J3cjwug]

We hopped aboard a scooter-powered cart to explore the Hutong district south of the Forbidden City in Beijing today. Our driver spoke in broken English and was hard to understand. But the view of the hutong was quite interesting. Powered up, we were able to see several of the 400-year-old neighborhoods. We began just southeast of Tian'an Men Square in an area where the government has erected new outer walls and repainted them. We continued through some abandoned and decrepit areas to an area that was thriving with life. Here men played checkers on the street, and children played with hula hoops. There were cars parked in the narrow streets. Many of the buildings in the last area we were in have been converted into hotels and hostels to give visitors a better idea of what they were like in their peak. I'm not sure I'd be able to find my way back at night down those winding, narrow streets.

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