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During China’s dynastic heyday, the emperors planned the
city and arranged the residential areas according to the etiquette systems
of the Zhou Dynasty (1027 - 256 BC). At the center of the metropolis was the
Forbidden City, surrounded in concentric circles by the Inner City and Outer
City. Citizens of higher social status were permitted to live closer to the
center of the circles.
The aristocratic hutongs of those days were
located just to the east and west of the imperial palace. The lanes were
orderly, lined by spacious homes and walled gardens.
Further from the palace and to its north and south were
the commoners’ hutongs, where merchants, artisans and laborers lived
and worked.
The residences lining the hutongs, whether grand
or humble, were generally siheyuan, complexes formed by four
buildings surrounding a courtyard. The large siheyuan of high-ranking
officials and wealthy merchants often featured beautifully carved and
painted roof beams and pillars and carefully landscaped gardens. Commoners’
siheyuan were far smaller in scale and simpler in design and
decoration.
The hutongs are, in fact, passageways formed by
many siheyuan of varying sizes, all arranged closely together. Nearly
all siheyuan had their main buildings and gates facing south for
better lighting; so that the majority of hutongs run from east to
west. Between the main hutongs, many tiny lanes ran north and south
for convenient passage.
Around the turn of the 20th century, the Qing court was
disintegrating, foreign influences were having a huge impact on people’s
lives and China’s dynastic era was coming to an end. The traditional
arrangement of the hutongs was also affected. Many new hutongs,
built haphazardly and with no apparent plan, began to appear on the
outskirts of the old city; while the old ones lost their former neat
appearance. The social stratification of the residents also began to
evaporate, reflecting the collapse of the feudal system.
During the period of the Republic of China (1911 - 1948),
society was unstable, fraught with civil wars and repeated foreign
invasions. The city of Beijing deteriorated, and the conditions of the
hutongs worsened. Siheyuan previously owned and occupied by a
single family were subdivided and shared by many households, with additions
tacked on as needed, built with whatever materials were available.
The 978 hutongs listed in
Qing Dynasty records had swelled to 1,330 by 1949, with nearly 5,000 tiny
alleys threading their way between the legitimate hutongs.
In the decades since the founding of the People’s
Republic of China in 1949, many of the old hutongs have disappeared,
replaced by the high rises and wide boulevards of today’s Beijing. Many
citizens have left the lanes where their families resided for generations,
resettling in comfortable apartment buildings with modern amenities. In
Xicheng District alone,
nearly 200 hutongs out of the 820 it held in 1949 have disappeared.
And the Beijing Municipal Construction Committee says that in 2004, some
250,000 square meters of old housing – 20,000 households – will be
demolished in 2004, which means that many more will disappear.
However, many of Beijing’s ancient hutongs still
stand, and a number of them have been designated protected areas. The old
neighborhoods survive today, offering a glimpse of life in the capital city
as it has been for generations.
Source:
China
Internet Information Center April 2004
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