Advantages: Beautiful buildings and a look at life for many ordinary citizens of Beijing Disadvantages: Can be busy and cramped
A hutong is an ancient alleyway or lane found in Beijing which can date back as far as the Yuan dynasty of China in the 13th century. The crisscrossing alleys can now offer a glimpse of another part of this ancient city that is quite different to the major attractions such as the Summer Palace or the Forbidden City.
The tiny, twisted and interconnected lanes wind through whole areas of the city of Beijing. The lanes are lined with traditional stone houses all arranged in quadrangles, so four houses around a courtyard, which are beautiful old fashioned buildings. They often involve carved pillars, window frames and doors and the open spaces of the courtyard lets in air and light to otherwise quite cramped areas-some of the lanes really are tiny with less than a metre of breadth. Most of the hutongs are still used as housing and are ...
flyingllamas 07.08.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Hutongs, Beijing
Advantages: great enjoyable seighseeing Disadvantages: some site is not well managed
The Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) was a very interesting place. The view just too good to be true, water of Kunming lake so clean and wide, and air is so fresh, for it's placed in Wanshou mountains. This palace was very large area, so you cant go inside and look everything here in just one day. The first visit from morning until dark you just see 1/5 area, for you have to walk non stop.
While you walk, the most often you will see is the hand painting ceilings and pillar，colored with red, blue, green, and with, sometimes gold. Gold color means king colors. Just king's stuff that using gold color.
So if wan to visit this place, plan visit it in several days, not just one day. ...
Advantages: Cheap, with helpful staff Disadvantages: pricy food (compared to outside of hostel),
I am back again, writing from the East! I write this while still at the hostel, while I wait for a train to Shanghai this evening. We checked out before 12 so effectively my experience of the place is complete. They are storing our bags and allowing us to use the communal facilities as we wait.
We booked our holiday to China in November, planning to go to Chengdu to visit a school friend of mine. She told us she would scope out the local hostels for us and that there was a chance we could stay in her friends flat instead. Then the earthquake hit Sichuan, and our holiday looked like it was going to be cancelled. We decided to change our destination to Beijing instead, and my friend came to join us. She recommended the hostel that she had stayed in on her last visit and it looked nice enough online, so she booked it for us a couple ...
