Hutongs

After the Forbidden city an early lunch - this required a short drive through the chaotic traffic - all slow moving but very random and the parking makes Birmingham look like valet parking. Spicy peanut chicken with cucumber and beef in yellow bean sauce. The for a rickshaw ride around the Hutongs - Beijing's traditional residences built around courtyards.I felt sorry for our driver but him and his bicycle rickshaw coped ok - our guide followed on a bike! This area is a warren of houses and although many dont have their own bathrooms they are inordinately expensive and apparently rarely sold just passed down through the family. China is a mass of interesting contradictions. We walked into on of the courtyards and talked to the owner who told us about the variety of fruits and veg he grows in virtually no soil. Apricots, grapes tomatoes allsorts of stuff. The hutongs have no street windows and no obvious signs of wealth or status but apparently in pre-communist times it was the number of lintels over your doorway that indicated your rank and the shape of the doorstop - book shaped for a civil servant , drum shaped for a soldier...Fascinating and very nearly lost to the redevelopers.Read more