老北京 - Old Beijing
The Hutongs (胡同) are narrow alleys that wind through the old quarters of Beijing between the Siheyuan (四合院 - traditional courtyard houses), skeletons of ruins, acrid smells and abandoned bicycles.
In the Chinese impetus to globalism there is no room for inaction and for that romantic fascination for the ruins of the old city. In recent years the number of Hutongs in Beijing has drastically decreased, eroded by a self-eating metropolis, leveled under bulldozers blades to make room for the foundations of towering pinnacles.
In the Chinese impetus to globalism there is no room for inaction and for that romantic fascination for the ruins of the old city. In recent years the number of Hutongs in Beijing has drastically decreased, eroded by a self-eating metropolis, leveled under bulldozers blades to make room for the foundations of towering pinnacles.
The bitter-sweet faces of the last inhabitants of the old Beijing (老北京 - Lao Beijing), recall the gaze of an endangered animal that sees its habitat eroded. the last Hutongs, after being emptied of their people and refurbished, have become colonies of souvenir shops overflowing with brightly colored junk and vermilion paper lanterns to lure tourists like moths.
