The word "Hutong" originated from the Mongolian word "huto", which means water wells. Since nomadic tribes used to live and stay near water wells, they called the small alleys "hutong". Beijing hutong is as famous as the city, hutong has become a special character of Beijing.
Hutong had its first appearance in Beijing in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).The name was gradually adopted by all the residents of Beijing, and has been handed down to the present. The houses built on each side of Hutong are called Siheyuan (quadrangle), generally rectangular dwelling compounds, in which buildings on four sides. Almost every quadrangle is surrounded by high walls. In fact, Hutong is formed by quadrangles standing side by side along a straight passage.
The width of Hutong was clearly regulated in the Yuan Dynasty and measured by steps. A passage of six steps in width was called a hutong, running directly from east to west. A passage of 24 steps in width was then called a street, which ran from north to south. The whole city, therefore, looked like a chessboard.
With the passage of dynasties, this stipulation, however, did not seem to be so strictly followed in the Ming and Qing dynasty. The meaning of hutong, in a broad sense, included alleys, passages and even small streets. "There are 360 hutong with names and those without names are as many as hairs on an ox". This old saying is used to describe the numberless hutong in Beijing. The saying is somewhat exaggerated, but it reflects the fact that Beijing's hutong are numerous and scattered everywhere. According to historical records, there were altogether 413 hutong and alleys in Beijing in the Yuan Dynasty. The number increased to 1,170 in the Ming, 2,077 in the Qing Dynasty and 6,104 in the mid-1980s.If all the hutong were arranged in a line, they would form a new "Great Wall"
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