On the last full day of our stay in Beijing, we paid for an optional tour of a typical Beijing “Hutong.”
A Hutong is a small traditional working class neighborhood where multiple families cluster in meager, flat roofed building with common bathrooms and kitchens. Although an integral part of Beijing’s history, they are practically extinct, quickly being razed and replaced by 50+ floor skyscrapers.
In an effort to defray some of the obvious PR issues associated with the systematic destruction of these neighborhoods, they’ve identified about 50 Hutongs which will be preserved, one of which we visited during our tour.
When deciding to take the tour, we were hoping for a small piece of authentic Chinese working class life. We’ve seen plenty of restored temples, palaces and pagodas. Here was our chance to see another side of the city.
Unfortunately what we ended up getting was another coordinated, government sponsored tourist destination.
The whole tour had the stench of a finely crafted public relations campaign.
Where were the poverty-stricken that we’ve had glimpses of down other, dirtier Hutong streets?
Why were there so many new roofs and freshly painted walls?
Why was the “local resident” that we visited as part of the tour not actually answering the questions posed, instead standing quietly by as the tour guide answered for her?
I'm torn about this trip. On one hand, I enjoyed the change of scenery. It really was different from the other, more developed areas of Beijing. On the other hand, I'm disapointed that we were directed to a not-so-accurate representation of a traditional Hutong.
New Pictures from the HUTONGPreviously added pics:
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