It was a little bit camp, but we took a took through one of the last (if not the last) old neighborhood in Beijing in a modern rickshaw (meaning it had a bicycle driver). The predominant color in the neighborhood was red--red signs, red lanterns, red items for sale. The color of good luck was very much in evidence in this crowded area with narrow streets that would no accomodate a full sized car.
Here is an aerial view--see, no room to move, really. We were able to gointo the home of an artist who lives in the Hutong, and he was asked about the ownership of the house and the Cultural Revolution. Yes, the house was divided into four dwellings during that time, and while his family maintained their deed in secret, when it was all over, all they were able to keep was the 1/4 of the property that they occupy. Such is the immediate past of modern China.
The name Hutong comes from the Mongolian word for town, and dates back to what is called the Yuan Dynasty but was really a time of occupation for China. Khuba Khan, one of the all too numerous offspring of Ghengis Khan, was running the show and had been for years, but in 1271 he proclaimed the Yuan Dynasty and declared himself Emperor of China.
The Ming Dynasty followed the Yuan Dynasty, and hutongs were organized with the Forbidden City in the middle of Beijing, and hutongs going out in ever expanding circles, the richest hutongs being closer to the center and the poorer ones furthest away. Now they have largely been bulldozered over and had high rise apartment buildings put on top of them--all but this one.
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