Hutongs are are a historical but slowly disappearing attribute of Beijing. A Hutong generally identifies a fairly narrow alley lined by Siheyuan (quadrangle and courtyard houses), which is then linked by other alleys to form a small neighborhood. Beijing hutong become more and more popular with foreigners.
Within 1276, the final of remnants the Tune Dynasty were finally destroyed with the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan. Kublai Khan set up the Yuan Dynasty (legally 1271-1368) and made his capital in Beijing. The word "Hutong" is said to result from the Mongol word "huto", which means water well, around which many early Hutongs grew. The name was gradually followed by all residents with Beijing hutong tours to mean a little street or alley.
Your houses lining Hutongs are called Siheyuan (quadrangle or even courtyard). In Beijing these are generally rectangular compounds, with buildings on all four sides. Almost every Siheyuan is surrounded just by high walls, with these walls creating a straight passage. The size and level of decoration of Siheyuan with Beijing reflected the social status in the residents, using those of high officials and merchants often big with elaborate decoration, while those with the poor were often crowded with only basic decoration.
1000s of Hutongs were built around the Forbidden City, along with the majority built during your Yuan, Ming together with Qing Dynasties. The Hutongs by which high officials resided were closest to the imperial palace and ran in ordered rows with north to south Beijing hutong tour. Reduced level businessmen and usual residents lived in crude Hutongs far on the north and south with the Forbidden City. The culture of Beijing Hutong
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