Today we decided to take it easy after two hectic and exhausting days. So we did a Hutong tour by rickshaw with an English-speaking guide. The tour included a visit to the home of Song Qing Ling who was the wife of Sun Yat Sen and a key figure in the Kuomintang and later the Chinese Communist Party; a visit to the home of a family living in the Hutong; the palace where the last Emperor Pu Yi was born; and a tea ceremony in a Ming Dynasty tea room compete with original furniture (according to the guide at least). In the evening we went to see a Kung Fu show performed by Shaolin monks which was very impressive, but performed in English for the almost exclusive benefit of European tourists and full of flag followers.
The Hutong districts of Beijing are the labyrinthine inner core of crumbling old grey alleyways, some dating back several centuries. Once the centre of life for Beijingers living outside the Palace walls, the Hutongs are fast disappearing and many have been pulled down in the ‘olympisation’ (as we call it) of Beijing. Houses in the Hutongs are set around a courtyard and totally enclosed by walls. They comprise three or four single storey buildings over-looking a small courtyard which contains a few trees (pomegranites are considered auspicious), flowers and cacti. Most Hutongs now are owned by the state and shared by up to three families in the equivalent of nine rooms. Some are privately owned and are shared by a single family – the one we visited, for example, was home to three generations. The conditions are cramped and some have no toilet facilities and rely on the many public toilets that are to be found in and around the Hutong. There is currently a government programme to preserve the remaining 1000 Hutongs and to convert them from coal-based heating to electric in order to address the very serious pollution problem. There is evidence of renovation and new building in the Hutong we visited and our guide tells us that the wealthy and government officials are now choosing to live there, making it ‘des res’ once more. Although presumably this latter trend is not to the benefit of the poorer inhabitants who can’t afford to improve their property even if they are lucky enough to own it.
The palace where Pu Yi was born is very beautiful, and has the usual linear layout of Ming dynasty buildings with cantilevered, tiered and tiled roofs and decorated eaves in the traditional style. But absolutely heaving with people. After a very cursory tour around which is all that can be managed in any case, we escape the throng to visit the tea rooms. This turns out to be one of the highlights of the tour. The tearooms are a haven of peace – presumably entrance is by prior arrangement only since our little group of four adults and four children are the only people there. Here, in one of the gloriously decorated palace rooms and furnished with original Ming Dynasty furniture, we are introduced to intricacies and rituals of tea-making Chinese style.
The trip to the theatre in the evening was a bit fraught; we thought we would be able to hail a taxi on the main road near our hotel, but we later learned that taxis aren’t allowed to pick up from there because there is a taxi rank at the Railway station just a few 100 yards away. A walk back to the hotel to attempt to get them to call a cab is unsuccessful so by the time we get the the taxi rank we are already running nearly an hour behind schedule. Fortunately it doesn’t take as long as we thought to get to the theatre and we are in our seats just in time for the performance. The show is mainly a showcase for the very impressive Kung Fu skills of the Shaolin monks and has a rather thin story line but very dramatic music. The theatre itself, on the other hand, is very ordinary although it made up for its lack of character with very comfortable seats. After the performance the whole cast was assembled in the foyer as the audience emerged from the auditorium. A nice touch!