Day Five

This morning we woke up to another lovely day - a littler hotter than yesterday but the sun was shining and we were on our way to a hutong. There is a lot to say about hutongs, but for now I will just quote from my guidebook: "In a region formerly protected by the Great Wall, Beijing was once also hidden behind its own city walls. Within the city walls were its citizens, each with a wall built around their own small homes and courtyards. Today, ring roads and walls of high-rise buildings have taken over the function of the city wall, and in the city center a dwindling labyrinthine inner core of crumbling old grey alleyways still remain which date back several centuries. These are the hutong, now disappearing to make way for busy streets, business parks, office buildings, and high-rise apartments."

One wonders where a family lives once their home/hutong has been "assumed" by the government in its quest to modernize Beijing? They are given a cash payment and are moved to one of the thousands of high rise apartment buildings near the city but often far from the city. The advantages of a new apartment are larger living spaces, a private bathroom (hutongs have public bathrooms!), electricity, AC-Heat, and modern kitchen conveniences. We are told many of the young families appreciate their newer homes/apartments (our guide mentioned "Unlike in a hutong, in an apartment you have privacy as you can close your door and be on your own), while their parents miss the "tight knit community and bustling social life" of the hutong. When a person is relocated to an apartment, they are permitted to live in it for 70 years. Remember, the land in China is owned by the government, so while you have your home it is not your private property.

We visited the most popular (and thus most crowded and commercial) hutong which is in an area surrounding the very beautiful Houhai Lake. We started off our tour by riding on bicycle-driven Ric-Shaws all over the village through winding paths, over bridges and down narrow alleyways.

Later that afternoon, after a quick stop at our hotel to freshen up, a group of us ventured out once again for a long awaited school visit.  As many of you know, the Dollie ladies of Dollies Making A Difference worked for weeks creating very special Asian dollies, which our group arranged to distribute to children at a public elementary school blocks away from our hotel in Beijing.

We were welcomed at the gate by the principal who led us through the playground to the school building (which looked just like our USA public schools!). On our way we were met by several 11 year olds who were leaving school early to attend accelerated programs at another site. One of the girls spoke very good English and she chatted away with Dylan and Kiera Prudente who were about the same age.

Here is the principal, who had worked at this elementary school for 20+ years!

How can that be? She looks around 21!!