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.