Welcome to Beijing

Class E Lucy Wy

Hello,everybody, today I want to introduce Beijing to you, especially the Beijing’s hutongs and siheyuans. I was born in Beijing. I lived in siheyuan about six years when I was a child. It’s very worthy of being remembered.

If you want to experience the local customs as well as the history and culture of Beijing, you should visit hutongs and siheyuans. It is the living environment of ordinary Beijingers.They are Beijing architectural structures.

Hutong means street,lane and alley. You will find many siheyuans there. One hutong connects with another, and siheyuan connects with siheyuan,to forma block, and blocks join with blocks to form the whole city.

A standard siheyuan usually consists of houses on its four sides. The house which stands at the north end and faces the south is called the “mainhouse”. The elder generation lives there. The ones on both sides are called “side houses”. The younger generation live there. And the one which stands at the south end and faces the north is called “south house”. It is usually their sitting-room and study.

Now with rapid urban development, a great number of “hutongs” have given way to modern architecture. A lot of hutongs will disappear.

Not only residences but also ancient palaces, government offices, and temples were built basically on the pattern of the sihuyuan, a common feature of traditional Chinese architecture.