Hutong life in Beijing
I’ve been living in Beijing Hutong area for more than 15 years, in my memory, there are many colours in Hutongs in Beijing, I was born in a Hutong in 1965, at that time, Hutong only had very simple colour, like grey,blue ,green…definitely no garish. but now, when you are sitting on a rickshaw and taking a Hutong tour, you will find out that there are many colours in Hutong areas in Beijing.
Hutong is a typical lane or small street in Beijing that originated during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). ‘Hutong’ is a Mongolian word, meaning ‘water well’. During that time, water well is the settlement around which people lived. There are tens of thousands of hutongs surrounding the Forbidden City.
In the past, Beijing was composed of countless courtyards. Hutongs were formed when people left a passageway between two courtyards to make entering them more convenient.
Owners of the courtyards often grow flowers and trees in the garden to decorate their happy life. Generally speaking, they love planting date trees, locust trees and cloves. The pomegranate tree is also their favorite because it has many seeds. In Chinese, the pronunciations of ’seed’ and ’son’ are the same, and old people believe that the more sons, the more blessings. This is the reason why we can see many pomegranate trees growing in the courtyards. Living in this elegant and harmonious environment, they must enjoy a peaceful and blissful life!
