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Beijing Hutong

Hutong is a typical lane or small street in Beijing that originated during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). The original Mongolian word was hottog, meaning " water well." In other words, it means a place where people live, because people always gather where there is water.

In old China, there were clear definitions of what was a street and what was a lane. A 36-metre-wide road was called a big street and an 18-metre-wide road was called a small street. A 9-metre-wide lane was called a hutong.Hutongs were formed when people left a passageway between two courtyards to make entering them more convenient. Most of the hutongs in Beijing run east-west or north-south. This is because most siheyuan were built along such axes according to the rules of feng shui and to take in more sunshine and resist cold winds from the north.

The Courtyard, a traditional unique folk house in the hutongs, is called 'Siheyuan' in Chinese, 'Si' means 'Four', which here refers to the four sides: east, west, north and south. 'He' refers to the surrounding, meaning the four sides circle into a square. Due to its special layout, it is compared to a box with a garden in the center. There is only one gate leading to a hutong.The Hutongs and the Courtyards reflect the ritualistic and traditional ideas of China, and contain rich cultural connotations. They are the archetypes of the royal architecture.

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