Sights in Beijing - Nanlouguxiang Old Hutong to Houhai Lake
There are hotels and a youth hostel called the "Peking Downtown Backpackers Accommodation" (Dongtang Inn) with excellent rates...View image, and double-bedded rooms available along with dorms. You can also rent bicycles at the hostel and bicycles still appeared to be the main form of transportation in the hutong unlike the rest of Beijing. Or, hire a pedicab to take you around this large area...View image
Don't think life in a hutong is, or was, wonderful for the people. Hutongs still house about half of Beijing's population (7 million people) and are modest in size. A hutong began with one courtyard house, and then another would build next to it and so on until there were square blocks of one neighborhood hutong. For the majority of Chinese, one house has been subdivided and shared by many households with additions tacked on later as needed. They were always built with bricks and wood and very few still have private toilets or washrooms. If you lived like this, wouldn't you want to move into one of Beijing's modern flats? Most of the locals feel the same and really don't care that the old hutongs are being torn down and replaced.
There are still some grand houses and courtyards built for wealthy nobles and officials, like these in Nanlouguxiang that have been preserved, remodeled and turned into museums, hotels, restaurants, government offices and shops. I would return to Nanlouguxiang for lunch or dinner in one of these restaurants (...not eat hot dogs on the street...and since China locals eat dogs, what are the chances it really is a hot "dog" - just kidding...maybe) and spend more time wandering the side streets.
Exhausted by four hours on our feet, we reversed direction out of Nanlouguxiang and passed a really old motorcycle with a side car parked in the street (I don't know how old it is but isn't it a beauty?)....
...And, began the long walk back to the Days Inn passing Houhai Lake where we stopped to take a long rest. Houhai lake is manmade and the largest of three consecutive lakes surrounded by restaurants, bars and more stores. You can walk around the entire lake, observe even more traditional hutongs and everyone should take the hokey hutong tour in a rickshaw at least once in Beijing.
Rent a boat, picnic along the peaceful lake, watch early morning exercisers, just chill out or keep walking to the Drum Tower. Pay a nominal entrance fee and climb the ancient steps up for wonderful views of the lakes at the top. Then keep walking back to the Silver Ingot Bridge, a white marble bridge that divides Houhai Lake from Qian Hai Lake. Walking around the lakes and adjacent neighborhoods could easily take an entire day.
Slogging onwards on hot, burning feet past the Forbidden City with a thankful collapse in our air-conditioned room and bed for a short rest before visiting Food Street... Touring is very hard work!
