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Thanks to Beijing's long history and status as capital for six dynasties, almost every hutong has its anecdotes, and some are even associated with historic events. In contrast to the court life and elite culture represented by the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven, the hutongs reflect the culture of grassroots Beijingers.
The history of the hutongs can be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty. After the establishment of the Yuan authority, the nobles were pleased to be awarded with certain pieces of land as feudal estates. They actively built houses and courtyards which were arranged in order around water wells.
Beijing hutongs have a history of more than 700 years. The hutong first appeared in the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). The Mongolians captured the Beijing area in 1215, and in 1271 they started to build their Yuan Empire capital called Dadu (大都 Dàdū).
Here, we present a history of the hutongs from the 13th century onwards highlighting the development in each epoch and how hutong life evolved in the 20th century when the last imperial dynasty fell and the hutongs developed under the communist government.
13 lut 2006 · Peter Hessler’s 2007 essay about his life in Ju'er Hutong, a “tiny alleyway in downtown Beijing”: “The layout of my neighborhood has remained more or less the same for centuries.”.
23 lut 2021 · Marrying the attitude system with attribute agenda-setting theory, this paper investigates the images of Beijing hutongs, ancient alleys lined by courtyard residences, in Anglo-American media.
2 sie 2018 · Beijing’s labyrinthine hutong alleyways intersect between ancient history and contemporary design. At least that’s the conclusion reached by some of the most ardent arbiters in architecture over the last decade.
