Beijing Hutong...

The Beijing Hutong represent traditional, old Beijing life. Hutong stands for narrow street or alley. Unfurtunately, they are rapidly disappearing. In the march towards modernity, Beijing is erasing this colorful part of Chinese life. Whole sections of the city with many Hutong are being raised to build soulless modern skycrapers that would not seem out of place in any large US city. To the Chinese, the Hutong represent old, crowded, and poor Beijing. Where the new gleaming buildings that are taking their place represent new, spacious, and wealthy Beijing. Hopefully, historical awareness will take hold and save some of this past for future generations. These are neighborhoods that populate people's memories and form their identity. Many of the older generation bemoan the loss of their familiar surroundings. We learned from one taxi driver that he had recently been given an eviction notice with little compensation for the loss of his home. He wondered aloud where he would go and how expensive it would be to live elsewhere. Most of this erasure of old Beijing is happening within the 3rd ring road representing central Beijing. More and more inhabitants are being forced out of this area of Beijing to live in the outer reaches of Beijing. Many people working at our office have 2+ hour commutes one way (or 4+ hours every day). Beijing is rapidly building a subway system to cope with these problems. Traffic is at near gridlock, and the hope amongst bus commuters is that it will provide quick travel around Beijing. Drivers are praying that it will ease congestion. At the rapid rate that Beijing is changing, it will probably not be enough unfortunately to make either group happy. Beijing has many challenges ahead.