Oriental familial culture thrives in the quadrangles behind hutong doors. The host of the east wing chambers of the compound courtyard at 17 West Street Front Lake, now shared by several families, so describes courtyard life: ¡¡ãThe square of sky above is yours; the square of ground beneath your feet is yours. No sooner do you take a stool and sit in the courtyard, than a motley crowd gathers around you, chatting, playing cards, or singing their favorite Peking Opera arias. Your first greeting of the day is when you look up and see the neighborhood pigeons flying overhead across the rooftops.¡¡À

This man obviously feels comfortable in a relationship with neighbors as close as that with his family members. He says he would not live in an apartment building because its insularity and estrangement from neighbors would make him feel stranded. "Here in a courtyard intimacy and help are all around you," he says. "Neighbors care for one another. For example, if a roof should leak on a rainy day, or the courtyard flood, all residents, young and old, will pitch in to help solve the problem." Many quadrangles in the hutong around Shichahai are now open to visitors.

Mr Wu of 2 Xiaojinsi Hutong has welcomed visitors to his home since hutong tours first started. Now retired from the Archeological Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, he enjoys talking about ways of preserving the ancient city. He says that hutong in Beijing are mostly built of brick and stone that over the years many have been worn away to expose centuries-old Chinese architectural workmanship. In certain areas the worn down sections have been patched up with cement. Mr Wu disagrees with this practice, saying that it detracts from the overall authenticity of hutong. He enjoys discussing with foreign visitors scientific ways of protecting hutong so as to preserve them wholly as they were built.

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. History of Beijing Hutong . A Tour of Hutong . Hutong Culture . Street and Hutongs . Beijing Hutong Tour . Hutong in Beijing . Beijing¡¯s Hutong . What is Hutong . Beijing Hutong Tours in China . Exploring Beijing¡¯s Hutong . Hutong Households . Hutong (Lanes) of Beijing . Beijing Hutong Tours: Hutong of Beijing.

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