Hutong Tour & Yashow Market

For our last full day in China we went on a rickshaw tour of an old section of Beijing. Neighbourhoods like these are called ‘Hutong’ in Chinese. According to our guide, ‘Hutong’ means water well. We actually visited inside one woman’s house. Her place is about 150 years old and she has lived there for about 40 years. She was given the place by her father. The woman and her husband are both retired ‘workers’ (she didn’t get specific). They live on a pension which is mostly provided by the government. They are considered a middle to low income family as are most people who live in Hutong areas. The areas are being ripped down slowly but surely to make way for buildings which can house greater numbers of people and which can have more modern conveniences such as toilets and running water. The families who live in these areas use public toilets since there really isn’t any way to get plumbing to the residences. After the tour we headed down to the Yashow Market. Although we didn’t know it, the market was only a few blocks from our hotel. We bought a mask to add to our collection and a couple of other things, but we didn’t find the vendors as hungry to bargain as the ones we met last year at the ‘Silk Market’ (a different market in Beijing).