'Real people' transition in Beijing's old hutongs

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-14 09:55

BEIJING - It's 8:30 a.m., on Smoking Pipe Street, and one of the city's oldest neighborhoods is sputtering to life again. The narrow pathway has been washed clean by an overnight rain. Locals are slowly leaving for work on foot and bike, while the aroma of fried dough is bursting from a wok of boiling oil in the tiny outdoor kitchen at Cheng Dou Snack.

One of the Hutong's more colorful residents cycles through with his myna birds. The neighborhoods, once for the wealthy, are now for all social classes and a disappearing tradition. [Agencies]

This neighborhood, a labyrinth of ancient passageways and alleys, and others like it are Mao Xian's passion.

Still home to about half of inner city residents, the 13th century courtyard communities - known as hutongs - are rapidly disappearing in a controversial concession to China's rapid development.

But Mao, a Mandarin professor at Capital Normal University who is writing a book on the traditional communities, is part of growing movement to preserve their character and unique identity.

"I want to instruct people on the history and culture of Chinese people from a different angle," he said, pausing on the bank of tranquil Shichahai Lake.

'Everyday passes very well'

"The Forbidden City is all about emperors and royals," Mao said. "This is about real people."

Liu Xiurong is about as real as it gets.

The retired laborer, her short salt-and-pepper hair brushed away from a happy face, has finished daily morning prayer.

Now perched on a stool in a skinny alley near her tiny home, Liu, 74, is doing what she enjoys most about hutong life: trading news and gossip of the day with her chatty neighbors.

For the most part, it is a spare but leisurely life. She rises early every day. Four days each week she attends a nearby Christian church.

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