Beijing Hutong Movie

Beijing Hutong Mini-Documentary By Xi Wang

Official attitudes towards Beijing hutong seem to be changing. Now instead of wholesale demolition many hutongs are being restored and fitted with modern amenities, as the city seeks to preserve this unique cultural heritage.

Introduction by Xi Wang

The hutong is a symbol of Beijing city. Hutongs have an enormous influence on Beijingers' lives. We may also say Beijing's culture created hutongs. However, narrow and crowed hutongs no longer suit modern city life. The inconvenient traffic and imperfect public facilities continue to be one of the enduring disadvantages of hutongs.

Many old hutong houses are a grave threat to residents' safety. The government has removed some hutongs and built new modern buildings and parks instead. Many people have grown very attached to their houses in hutongs and would hate to move. However, most of them do not have ownership of their houses due to the historical problems, so they were forced to move to outer suburbs.

Things have been changing positively with the Olympic Games drawing near. It's gratifying to see the government has improved their policy. Hutongs now have been widely protected and re-built. Agreement between residents and the government have been considered important and essential. A hutong house will be re-built only if the resident agrees.

However, some problems still persist with the new policy. For a start, there are some residents who are not able to afford short term accommodation during the construction, although the construction itself is paid by the government. Secondly, private toilets still have not come to every single house yet. Residents continue to need to share public toilets.

In addition, the gas central heating system has not been introduced to hutongs. Burning coal continues to be the major way to keep warm in winter. This heating is very ineffective and very bad for the environment. While there are still on-going issues to be addressed for Beijing and the hutong residents a positive start has been made toward preserving an important symbol of Beijing. Beijing's culture and history will continue to live on for future generations.

Reinventing Beijing's Hutong