| Hutongs/Bell and Drum Towers tips and photos posted by real travelers and Beijing locals. • 161 Photos
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 | Beijing Hutongs/Bell and Drum Towers Reviews | 21 - 30 of 89 |  |
“Old Beijing” is quickly disappearing and making way for a more modern “western” metropolis. This is sad as I fell that, apart from the faces in the crowd, you could simply be in any city of the world. The same shopping malls, fast food outlets, department stores and sterile shopping environment are now raising their heads in Beijing.
To escape the hustle and bustle of modern life I would suggest visiting a HUTONG.
In the Hutongs you will experience locals going about their daily lives, stall holders selling traditional products, shoe repairmen looking for their next client, inexpensive tea houses to relax in and traditional food at very low prices. Leave a Comment
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 the bell in the belltower by tompt
The Bell Tower originally housed a huge iron bell, this was not loud enough and was replaced by a massive cast bronze bell. This bell could be heard from a distance of over 20 kilometers.
Today you can climb a steep stairway to the second floor to see the bell, and have a good view over the hutongs and the drum tower opposite it. Leave a Comment
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 Drum tower as seen from the
Bell tower by tompt
The first level of the Drum Tower is a solid square terrace four meters high, 55.6 meters long and 30 meters wide. A broad wooden structure is built atop the terrace. The Drum Tower was once the time keeping center for the whole city, drums were beaten to mark the hours. The upper story of the building housed 24 drums, of which only one survives. The timekeeping was abondened at the same time with the last emperor. Leave a Comment
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 by Mez77Leave a Comment
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 Hutongs by filipdebont
The Hutongs are the authentic quarters in Beijing. It is quiet special to visit such a Hutong, with all those narrow streets.
In some places the people who live there have to share a toilet block, so it can be a bit smelly when you pass there.
But bit by bit the Chinese are removing these Hutong quarters, in order to build high buildings. That is kind of a pity as like this the original view of Beijing gets lost.
Instead they (the Chinese) are building those ugly rectangular buildings decorated with white tiles, they look like giant shoe-boxes. Leave a Comment
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 A rare open door by josieling
The HUTONG describes a traditional Beijing village which is fast disappearing amid towering new skyscrapers.
It's like a warren of narrow walled streets where the walls are grey and intermittenly broken by red doors which are entrances to homes. Each compound behind the walls usually consists of a courtyard and buildings around it which could house a few families, usually related.
It strikes me as an intensely private architecture as nothing of the home can be seen from the outside.
You can get into these tours at a hotel or at the sites themselves. Make sure it includes a visit into the homes.
Walking in the hutong is a good alternative. Leave a Comment Address: The nicest Hutongs are around Beihai Lake.Directions: Sometimes you can find hutongs around where you stay too.
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You can't visit Beijing without taking a Hutong Tour. Hutongs are the tiny little alley ways in and around the old style village housing estates.
The Government have preserved around 25 such areas. The way to see the Hutings and the old Courtyard homes is to take a rickshaw ride.
We paid Yuan 120 for a 40 minute tour. Aswell as this, you also pay to enter a traditional courtyard home. We felt sorry for our driver so we tipped him quite generously. The Tour organiser gets the majority of the money paid and the driver a pittance in comparison so the tip he received was greatfully appreciated.
Make sure that you take a rickshaw Hutong Tour through one of the Legal organised tours. These are identifiable by the vests they wear. Leave a Comment
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 by CliffClaven |
Hutongs are alleys or narrow streets found in Beijing formed by lines of courtyards. Hutongs are generally no wider than 9 metres. Since the 20th Century Hutongs have declined dramatically to make way for new buildings. There are still many well preserved Hutongs to see in Beijing, one area being in the Drum and Bell tower area, so we made our way up here one day, on the way from a visit to the Forbidden City and Beihei Park onto the Lama Temple. As we approached the area there were several ‘touts’ that could take you on a 40 minute or 1 hour Hutongs tour in their pedicab, however, due to lack of time (and money!) we decided to just stroll around them ourselves after a quick visit to the Drum tower. Walking around the Hutongs made me feel like I was catching a glimpse more of the real Beijing – there were no tourists at all walking around this area at the time we were there. Leave a Comment
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 shishahai by cpim2004
How many hutongs are there in Beijing? Old local residents have a saying: “There are 360 large hutongs and as many small hutongs as there are hairs on an ox.” Laid out in a chessboard pattern which was established as early as the Ming Dynasty, these hutongs cross–cut the city into tiny squares. In those days the capital was divided into the eastern, western, northern, southern and central districts, with a total of 33 neighborhoods, divided again into hutongs.
At present, there are about 4,550 hutongs, the broadest over four meters wide and the smallest -- the eastern part of Dongfu’ an Hutong, a mere 70 cm across -- just wide enough for a single person to traverse. Although the city has changed a great deal over the last 500 years, the hutongs remain much the same as during Ming and Qing times.
Beijing’s best known hutongs are of three types: centers of government offices, residential areas for nobles and officials, and old markets. Leave a Comment Address: shishahai lake areaDirections: Start from the north entrance to Beihai Park by old-fashioned pedicab to the picturesque Shishahai Lake area.
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