During our trip to China, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the Caochang Hutong. The Hutongs in China are neighborhoods that were created by joining courtyard type residences (siheyuan) together. Often, the hutongs were joined together to form larger neighborhoods. These neighborhoods date back to the beginning of the thirteenth century. Many of the Beijing hutongs were destroyed to build streets and new structures. Many of the hutongs are now protected from development.
My wife and I were part of a tour group invited to visit Uncle Wang, a retired machinist. Uncle Wang opened his siheyuan to us and allowed us to look around. The residence had a stone entrance that came in from the side of an alleyway. The family room was located on the opposite side of the courtyard, a storage room on the near side, and bedrooms and a kitchen on the remaining sides of the courtyard. We began with tea and treats before an interpreter assisted our cultural interaction by translating our questions.
Photos from our visit to the Hutong and Uncle Wang's residence are below. Uncle Wang encouraged us to take pictures, which seemed a bit disconcerting, but too good of an opportunity to pass up. He was a gracious host.
We had to navigate the alleyways to get to his residence:
Courtyard of the residence. The kitchen is left, family room straight, bedrooms right.
Chinese hospitality
Uncle Wang and our interpreter
Kitchen
Storage Room
I did not take photos of the personal spaces of his home. While permitted, I thought it was a bit too invasive. After a pleasant visit with our adopted uncle, we went on a rickshaw ride. The rickshaws are a fun experience, but I would imagine there are opportunities for fraud if one were to just hop on a rickshaw. Luckily, our tour guide arranged our tour through the hutong, creating a safe environment for our sight seeing. The rickshaw drivers did not speak English, so the tour did not include any narration. But it is more of a visual experience anyway. It was fun to navigate the winding streets and see people conducting business off the beaten path. Below are some photos from the rickshaw portion of our hutong visit.
Hutong tours can be purchased from a variety of vendors. Ours was part of a larger tour package that included our entire 11-day trip. If you are in Beijing on business or without a tour group, a four hour tour runs close to $50 US. This would include transportation from your hotel, the rickshaw tour and a visit to a local family. That is not a bad price for the experience. Particularly for the opportunity to have an intimate cultural interaction.
I hope you enjoyed reading about the Hutong tour. Feel free to check out my other adventures in China. The photos in this article are all mine. They may be reproduced with prior permission.