Hu Tong Details

Decoration Details, Symbolizing the Wealth and Taste of the Owner

A Private Court Yard

Typical Roof of the Entrance

Beijing Hu Tong Today

Beijing Hu Tong in the 1800's.

Right after I graduated from college in Beijing, I went to work for a company located right across Guo Zi Jian, one of the most famous Hu Tongs in Beijing. Guo Zi Jian used to be the home of the administration department for national tests. For hundreds of years, elites are selected from these standardized national tests, and officials at many levels of the government are groomed from these pools of talents.

It is important to notice that these tests often focus on calligraphy (an important form of art in China) and literature, and the elite class have therefore become instrumental to the continuity of Chinese culture heritage. It is also believed that this is one of the reasons that China virtually stopped science and technology advancement since 1500 because of such bias on the national selection system.

Beijing Hu Tong

Hu Tong is a type of alley where private court yards line up next to each other. Some court yards are for high rank officials, and many others are for ordinary people, sometimes shared by several families. Deep bonding between these families often last for generations. If you have ever visited Beijing, you may have taken a Hu Tong tour. You are more than welcome to share your Hu Tong photos here.

Beijing Financial District

There is at least one benefit when there is no comments to my postings - that I could take my own pace and don't feel too much responsibilities. Here again, some modern architectures on the west side of the Forbidden City. Ancient and modern, as fascinating as you can imagine.