Tuesday, September 27: Part III: The Hutong

After the Great Wall, Andrew drove us back to Beijing and took us to Jumen Snack in a Hutong area.  According to Wikipedia, "In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighbourhoods"  A siheyuan is "is a historical type of residence that was commonly found throughout China, most famously in Beijing. In English, siheyuan are sometimes referred to as Chinese quadrangles. The name literally means a courtyard surrounded by four buildings.Throughout Chinese history, the siheyuan composition was the basic pattern used for residences, palaces, temples, monasteries, family businesses and government offices. In ancient times, a spacious siheyuan would be occupied by a single, usually large and extended family, signifying wealth and prosperity. Today, many remaining siheyuan are still used as housing complexes, but many lack modern amenities."

 

A view along the road on the way home (it was almost dark, hence the poor quality of this picture)

We parked in the alley, Gary doing the parking job since it was a very tight spot, and he has the most experience.

This was in the alley--looks like they sold cigarettes and tea.

This was also in the alley right near where we parked.  We didn't see any courtyards until we got to the snack bar. Instead it looked more like an alley that could be seen in any country

In the courtyard of the snack bar

Inside the snack bar--we had a bunch of different foods including something that we later found was fried intestines.  It tasted pretty good, reminding me of the rabbit I had in Germany that tasted great until I found out what it was.

Andrew and Gary with some of the different food items.

A big draw at Jumen snack was the opera singers.  Retired opera singers regularly sang here:

I believe this song was about Chairman Mao

Outside the snack bar

In the alley by the snack bar

Next we walked to Lake Hou (Houhai on the map, but I assume that 'hai' means lake since the other lakes on the map have the same ending), past groups of people congregating and different restaurants.

At Houhai.  Soong Ching-Ling, a famous Nationalist leader who turned communist had a home on this lake.

Outdoor eating area

Restaurant entrance

After the lake we walked past the ritzy area, past the area back to where we had parked the car.

Outside of a siheyuan (on our walk back to the car)

View of Beijing on our drive back.