The Original Place of Beijing's Traditional Food

Okay...Continue my third blog, the original place of most traditional food in Beijing---Hu Tong!

Here is a picture of Hu Tong:



Hu tong are a type of narrow streets or alleys, commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, most prominently the capital city of China, Beijing.

In Beijing, Hu Tong are formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighborhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another.



Nowadays, a large number of Beijing Hu Tongs were demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. Therefore, many Hu Tongs have been designated as protected. In history, Hu Tongs were first established in the Yuan dynasty (1206~1341) and then expanded in the Ming (1368~1628) and Qing(1644~1908) dynasties.



Hu Tongs represets an important cultural element of Beijing. Furthermore, it reflects the culture of Beijinger, or people who living and grow up in Beijing. The Hu Tongs are the core of Old Beijing,  Thanks for six dynasties and Beijing's long history, we can visit these magnificent cultural places.

As I mentioned in the first blog, the traditional food of Beijing came from many places, it combines cultures from different regions. In the past, some Hu Tong was the main road of entering the royal building, or Forbidden City.





More interesting facts:

Beijing has was divided by many gates, such as Xizhimen(West Gate), Dongzhimen(East Gate), Chaoyangmen, Xuanwumen, Tiananmen etc. These gates were created for defending from enemies in the past time  (Some of the gates can not be translated because its so awkward)




Each Hu tongs has a name, some were created by the views nearby, some were created by the business of location.

Here are some Hu Tong I chose:

The Hu Tongs near the City Gates: Inner Xizhimen Hu Tong, Outer Dongzhimen Hu Tong.



Named by markets and business, such as Yangshi Hu Tong, which is literally means sheep market. Or Yizi Hu Tong, Yizi is a local term for soap.


Named by temples, such as Guanyinsi Hu Tong, Guanyinsi is the Kuan-yin Temple in English.



Named by local feathres, such as Liushu Hu Tong. Liushu means willow, or you can call it willow trees Well Hu Tong.



Some were named by famous people, because they are or were living in this Hu Tong.
Such as Qibaishi Hu Tong. Qibaishi, a famous artist in China.













Most of Hu Tongs are straight, but some of the Hu Tong was named by its turns. Such as Jiudaowan Hu Tong, which turns nine times inside the Hu Tong. In Chinese, 九道弯 literally means Nine turns.



In the next blog, I will introduce the next genre of the traditional food in Beijing, the sticky food.
















AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Work Cited:
Picture of Beijing Hu Tong and The artist Qibaishi

The introduction of Beijing Hu Tong