Compass Points – Robert Stedman

ROBERT STEDMAN WRITES THAT WHILE BEIJING IS RAPIDLY BECOMING A MODERN CITY, THERE REMAINS REMNANTS OF ITS PAST THAT YOU SHOULD SEE BEFORE THEY ALL DISAPPEAR.

When I first visited Beijing back in the 1980s foreigners were advised to stay out of the hutongs. These back alleys were wicked and dangerous where the rule of law didn’t apply. Somehow hutongs managed to hang on down through the years—until recently. With the ever-expanding skyline of the capital city, the hutongs are rapidly making way for new developments.

ANCIENT ALLEYS

Hutongs, in case you didn’t know, are Beijing’s ancient city alleys, or lanes, that at one point numbered in the thousands. Surrounding the Forbidden City, many were built during the

Yuan (1206-1341), Ming (1368-1628) and

Qing (1644-1908) dynasties. The center of the city of Beijing then was the royal palace—the Forbidden City. In fact, all major Chinese cities have hutongs of some sort.

From the start, hutongs were orderly and fashionable where imperial kinsmen and aristocrats lived. Buildings were made up of a complex formed by four houses centered around courtyards. The big houses of highranking officials and wealthy merchants were specially built with roof beams and pillars all beautifully carved and painted, each with a front yard and back yard. However, the ordinary people’s houses were simply built with small gates and low houses.

CONDITIONS WORSENED

With the collapse of the feudal system and during the period of the Republic of China (1911-1949), China entered its time of troubles. Society was unstable, with frequent civil wars and foreign invasions. Beijing deteriorated, and hutongs conditions worsened. Houses once owned by one family became a compound occupied by many households. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, conditions improved, but maintaining law and order continued to be troublesome.

The solution was to pull down the houses in many hutongs and replace them with modern buildings. Hutongs still exist and now provide shops and housing for well-to-do Chinese. It is ironic it has become fashionable to live in a hutong.

If you like walls, you will like China. Walls are everywhere. In the 1980s there was the massive, 12m thick outer wall that you had to pass through to enter Beijing. Then there was a second wall which enclosed the Tartar City, and within that a third wall around the Imperial City. And in the very centre of all these walls was another walled city, the grandest one of them all—the Forbidden City.

WHISPERING WALL

There were still other walls, like the 65-meter circular Whispering Wall of China, a true masterpiece of masonry. You can stand on the inside, close to the wall, and whisper something that can be heard by someone on the opposite side with their ear close to the wall.

Sadly, today “progress” and escalating land prices have meant that hutongs are disappearing. When I visited recently, Beijing, certainly, is not the same place it was when I first came to know it. Its population has doubled and that has put pressure on the city to find land and new housing. With great sadness I learned the great gates and outer wall around Beijing have been leveled and canals filled in to make room for thoroughfares. That magnificent ancient edifice is now a wide busy street.

LOST TREASURES

After the first day of my visit, it became obvious that many of the treasures of the past have been lost. But many remain and anyone who is interested in the traditional lifestyle of Beijing can still seek out and find what they want.

There are a good number of hutongs left. They may not be as decrepit as they once were, but you still get a feeling for what they must have been like. “You don’t want to go there,” my guide said. “There’s nothing there.” How wrong he was. It was like stepping back in time. Hutongs evoke what ancient China must have been like. Walking along their cobblestoned streets you really get a sense of history, even if the surrounding buildings have been updated. If you do get a chance to visit Beijing, make sure you take time to explore one of its remaining hutongs before they’re all gone.