The Vernacular Culture of Beijing has developed a new tourist project: threading the hutongs, which means visiting the alleyways of the capital city one by one. Here, the word "threading" denotes an action similar to that of "threading beads with a string to make a necklace". But why is the word hutong used instead of the common word "alleyway" or "alley"? In order to understand this point, you need to learn something about the origin of this Chinese word. In the 13th century, China was under Mongolian domination. The Mongols established the Yuan Dynasty and designated Beijing as the capital city. Chinese people had to take orders from their new masters. The word hutong was a phonetic translation of a word of the medieval Mongolian language which was pronounced somewhat like the English word water and somewhat like the Russian word voda. Anyhow it meant the liquid substance water. Chinese people, however, took the word as meaning a place where there was a well to fetch water from. Therefore, the word hotong came to mean a residential area where there are wells which supply the indispensable substance water. Thence the word hutong began to denote a kind of ancient urban alleyway which is specific to the capital city Beijing. It is not applicable to alleys elsewhere.
The city of Beijing has as its center the imperial Palace. On the east and west sides of the Palace, not far from it, are concentrated the regular hutongs. Almost all the principal architectural structures along them are quadrangles, which are courtyards surrounded and enclosed by houses on the four sides. They are arranged in an orderly pattern from south to north like warp and weft. The dwellers formerly were, as a rule, kin to the emperor or families of the aristocracy. The crude and shabby hutongs are at a distance from the Palace to the south and north, inhabited by merchants and common people.
The city of Beijing is laid out according to the design that the outer city encloses the inner city and the inner city encloses the imperial city. In the space in between the outer and the inner cities crisscross the numerous hutongs of various sizes. This pattern of architecture is unique in the world. It can be said with assurance that the hutongs are the main special feature of our Beijing metropolis. Without the hutongs there would not be the traditional Beijing and, moreover, Beijing would not be in a position to fulfill the promise that it holds out to new visitors to it of affording them a special relish.
If we say that the once forbidden city is the heart of Beijing, then the hutongs are the blood capillaries because they are countless in number. The oft repeated saying that "High walls tower on the two sides with one narrow passageway sandwiched in between," is a realistic description of a hutong. Another saying, which emphasizes the immense number of hutongs of old Beijing, runs as follows: "The counting of well-known hutongs runs up to three thousand and six hundred, while those which are fit only to remain in oblivion are as numerous as the hair of an ox."
The line upon line of blue grey narrow and long passageways form by crisscross interweaving a city map which seems to be haphazardly planned but is actually highly methodical. A native of some other place who has arrived in Beijing for the first time will try to read out the names of the hutongs in tones that fall far short of the requirement of the standard common speech of spoken Chinese. He will feel that these names are tongue twisters. His eyes will blink with a sense of estrangement and isolation. He will perhaps seek the help of a Beijing old-timer, who will tell him the name of the place in the Beijing dialect, which is rich in the tongue manipulations difficult for people from other places to imitate with exactness. The Beijing old-timer will utter the place names with familiarity penetrated with intimacy as if they were the names of his/her cronies.
Walking along these long lanes, you will feel deep in your heart a calmness that you have not had for a long time, though the mingled dialects you hear make the place like Babel on a minor scale. The calmness you feel stems from the common but real life in the hutongs.
In regard to the names of the hutongs of various sizes, if you should attempt to translate them into English phonetically, you would destroy the cultural interest that they contain, for the reader would find it impossible to get even an inkling of the true meaning of each name. The reason is that these Chinese names are full of the sentiments of pastoral poetry, the dense smell of the native soil and the feeling of human empathy. Let"s try to find from the following names of old streets and lanes traces of the "pastoral city" that Beijing once was: four-aperture well, Bamboo-pole lane, Fishing terrace, and Tobacco-pouch oblique street. Many names are connected with people"s daily life, for example, Rice-market hutong, Oil-shop hutong, Salt-shop hutong, and Sauce-shop hutong. Some names are based on the shapes, for example, a lane in the form of a circle is called the Grinding-stone hutong, a slender lane is called the Penholder hutong or the Arrow-shaft hutong. It may be named the Bean-sprout hutong if it is not very straight. A curved lane may be named the Crescent hutong, or a little rudely, the Dog"s-tail hutong. If a lane is narrow at one end but broad at the other, it may be called the Trumpet hutong. These names give people a feeling of intimacy, don"t they?
Hutongs are in a sense reminiscences of the past era. You might be interested to know some details of their glorious past. There were once more than 6,000 alleyways in Beijing, of which only 1330 were named hutongs. The others, though popularly also called hutongs, bore other titles, such as lane, way, and even street or road. The narrowest hutong that Beijing has ever had was the Money-market hutong, which was only 40 cm wide at its narrowest part.
How are you going to stroll around the hutongs? If you go on foot, the city is too big for you. You can"t afford the time and the energy. If you ride in a pedicab, you will have to spend too much money. Besides, the pedicab will whiz you past places without giving you the opportunity to see anything clearly. The conclusion is that the best way to thread the hutongs will be riding on a bicycle. But where are bicycles to be hired. As you are not familiar with Beijing, you will have to make inquiries. People will be glad to tell you where shops are which hire out bicycles. Generally speaking, such shops hire out a bicycle for a single person at 10 Yuan an hour and a tandem bicycle at 20 Yuan an hour. A deposit of 500 Yuan should be made for each bicycle hired. You can also find individuals with bicycles to be let out on hire at half of the above rates and demanding only 300 Yuan as the deposit. A third possibility is to find a place where bicycles are hired out by the day. The rate is generally much lower, perhaps at 20 Yuan a day.
The capital city Beijing is interwoven by hutongs which crisscross the space where hundreds of thousands of excellent persons and things are assembled. In the hutongs there are countless warm and affectionate families. This is the root cause of the feeling of deep love that Beijing people have for the hutongs. In order to understand the true feeling of the Beijing old-timers and sympathize with them, touring the hutongs is necessarily on your itinerary. For the purpose of making you come to be on better terms with Beijing and understand thoroughly the local conditions and customs, I have prepared for you an article "Be on intimate terms with Beijing People", which you need to read as a follow-up to this one.
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