Hutongs are a fascinating concept. By definition, it means alleyway, but it really is more than that. Imagine walking down a narrow alley with steel doors on each side. There is very poor lighting, and it almost looks like a ghetto. If this were a more violent city, perhaps you might have to be concerned. But In China, many people live here. In each door is usually a courtyard with "rooms" around it. There is possibly a shared bathroom (or not) and a shared kitchen. It's like dorm life for adults. If your hutong doesn't have a bathroom, there are shared bathrooms throughout the alleys.
You would think that these would be very economical or where low-income families might stay as in Brazil or India. Oddly, there are hotels, fancy restaurants and huge homes in these hutongs. We went into a tea restaurant that felt like I was entering the TMNT layer. But each room was immaculately decorating with fancy bathrooms and skylights.
There are some cheap-eats here in the hutongs as well. We had breakfast most mornings for about 1 quay (RMB) each - the equivalent of 12.5 cents. Hmmm, after eating in China, there are definitely things that I wish made it to the rest of the world. For instance - Hot Pot is like Asian fondue (sp?). You got a choice of broth and a selection of food to drop into it. For dinner, we got one spicy one (Fil and I), and one non-spicy (Genny - and when my mouth was on fire). So good.
Prior to the hot pot, we walked around Drum and Bell Tower and then had tea at Hou Hai Lake and took some pictures.
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