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| The Hutong laneway we stayed on. |
During our recent visit to Beijing with a group of travelling friends we were fortunate to stay in one of the Hutongs near the Forbidden City. The Hutongs, first created in Yuan Dynasty the times of Kublai Khan, are residential areas that are made up of small alley ways that sit between the main roads.
Aristocrats and Ministers of the Forbidden City were housed here in courtyard homes or Si-He-Yuan. These large elegant homes that were originally built for one family around a central courtyard were subdivided during the Cultural Revolution and again to house thousands of homeless people following the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. In recent years huge areas of Hutongs have been replaced by modern developments.
