Hutong Tour

I think the Hutong Tour is my absolute favorite attraction in Beijing. It transports you right into this old world culture. I told Doug that I felt I was in a movie. It's quite surreal.

Hutong Village is the oldest and most expensive vilage in Beijing. It was built during the Qing Dynasty for the officials to live close by to The Forbidden City. It is great community where everyone knows everyone. There is an old saying,"It is better to have a good neighbor, then a good child." Children go away and get married, but a good neighbor is alwas there when you need them.

In order to take a tour of the vilage we needed to take rickshaw ride. (Pictures will be uploaded tonight.) The rickshaw is pulled by a man riding a bike. The braks on the rickshaw are constructed by a piece of ribbon and one or two water bottles used as weights. The rickshaw behind us rear ended us a number of times... time for a new brake system?????

The village is made up of narrow streets mostly used by bikes and walkers. Unfortunatly with 1000 new cars registered a day, there was a bit of ar traffic. At one point our tour group came to a stand off with a car in a narrow road. There was a lot of yelling and whooping. Eventually the car won and the 7 rickshaws in our group was backing into a teeny tiny alley next to th public potty. It was hilarious! All we could do was laugh at the craziness. Coming out of the alle, it must have looked like a clown car. I could only laugh more.

This attraction is something not to be missed if you ever hav the opportunity to visit Beijing.