In ancient timespeople tended to gather and live around wells. So the original meaning of Hutong should be"a place where people gather and live."Another explanation says that during the Yuan Dynastyabout 13th centuryresidential areas in the city were divided into many divisions. Between the smaller divisions were passageways for people to travel through. And those passageways also functioned as isolation belts against fire risks. In Mongolian languagepassageways of this kind were called Hutong. But no matter what Hutong exactly meansone thing is for surethat is Hutong first appeared in Beijing during the Yuan Dynasty. In the early 13th centurya Mongolian tribe from the north became very strong. Led by Genghis Khanthe Mongolian occupied Beijingthe capital of the Jin Dynasty. In the year 1271Kubla Khanthe grandson of Genghis Khanounded Yuan Dynasty and set Beijing as the capital city in the following year. Unfortunatelythe old city was completely destroyed during the war. So they had to rebuild it. In old Chinaall the structures and roads were required to be symmetrical. So the city was well designed. Firstthey had to find a centerand then built a regular square city. The layout of the city was very much like a chessboard. About 50 residential areas were constructedwith straight roads and Hutongs in between. At the timethere was a clear definition for avenuestreet and Hutong. A 37-metre-wide road was called an avenuean 18-metre-wide one was called a streetand a 9-metre-wide lane was called a Hutong. Most of today's Hutong were formed during the Ming and Qing Dynasties that followed. Nobody knows exactly how many Hutongs there are in nowadays Beijing. But one thing is for sureif we connected all the Hutongs togethertheir total length would even be longer than the famous Great wallwhich is about 4000 miles longer. Or to make it clearit could build a highway from Seattle to Bostonall across America
Today you can find various Hutongs with different shapeslengths or directions.The shortest one is only 40 centimeters widewhich means a person like me has to walk sideways to get through. And some Hutongs have more than 20 turns. With the growth of the populationmany old Hutongs have disappeared to make way for high-rise apartments.
The gate building of each Siheyuan is the only thing that we can see along the Hutongs. Chinese people used to try to protect their privacy from being intruded by strangers. So the gate buildingin old timeswas a symbol to show the position of each house owner. You don't have to go inside the courtyard. Just look at the gate buildingyou can already tell whether it's an influential family or not.
Almost every doorway has a thresholdthat high step over there. Remember we saw some yesterday in the Forbidden City and the Summer PalaceFor what reason they put a big step at the door
You know Chinese people believe all the evil spirits are short. They can not jump over high steps. So the threshold is actually for warding off evil spirits. These two pieces of stone by the threshold are also decorations for the gate building. Like these twoshaped like drums. They are called drum stones. On the top are carved reclining lionsand on the frontright and left sides are carved a bat holding an ancient coin in its mouth. You know Chinese people like bats very muchbecause bat in our language shares the same pronunciation with"fortune"So this pattern means good fortune is right before you. Some gate pillows are rectangular in shapewhich means they are younger than the drum stones. They were only built in the recent 100 yearsmainly for small-and-medium-scale courtyards. And their patterns are usually flowers and mascots.
In old timestransportation was not as convenient as todayso street vendors played a very important role in Hutong life. They wandered from lane to lane selling various goods or providing all kind of services. People could judge the goods or services from their peddling or the sounds of their special instruments. The food they sold usually include baked pancakesseasoned millet mushor Youzhaguoa kind of deep-fried twisted dough sticksand all kinds of vegetables.