Beijing Lane

A lane is an ancient city alley or lane typical in Beijing, where lanes run into the several thousand. Surrounding the Forbidden City, many were built during the Yuan (1206-1341), Ming(1368-1628) and Qing(1644-1908) dynasties. In the prime of these dynasties the emperors, in order to establish supreme power for themselves, planned the city and arranged the residential areas according to the etiquette systems of the Zhou Dynasty. The center of the city of Beijing was the royal palace - the Forbidden City.

One kind of lanes, usually referred to as the regular lane, was near the palace to the east and west and arranged in orderly fashion along the streets. Most of the residents of these lanes were imperial kinsmen and aristocrats. Another kind, the simple and crude lane, was mostly located far to the north and south of the palace. The residents were merchants and other ordinary people.

The main buildings in the lane were almost all quadrangles - a building complex formed by four houses around a quadrangular courtyard. The quadrangles varied in size and design according to the social status of the residents. The big quadrangles of high-ranking officials and wealthy merchants were specially built with roof beams and pillars all beautifully carved and painted, each with a front yard and back yard. However, the ordinary people's quadrangles were simply built with small gates and low houses. lanes, in fact, are passageways formed by many closely arranged quadrangles of different sizes. The specially built quadrangles all face the south for better lighting; as a result, a lot of lanes run from east to west. Between the big lanes many small ones went north and south for convenient passage.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty unified and closed China came under influence from abroad, having experienced change of dynasties and the vicissitudes of life. The stereotyped arrangement of the lane was also affected. Many newly formed lanes with irregular houses appeared outside the city, while many old ones lost their former neat arrangement. The social status of the residents also changed, reflecting the collapse of the feudal system. During the period of the Republic of China (1911-1948), Chinese society was unstable, with frequent civil wars and repeated foreign invasions.

The city of Beijing deteriorated, and the conditions of the lane worsened. Quadrangles previously owned by one family became a compound occupied by many households. After the founding of the people's Republic of China in 1949, lane conditions improved. In recent years, the houses in many lanes have been pulled down and replaced by modern buildings. Many lane dwellers have moved to new housing. The lane today is fading into the shade for both tourists and inhabitants. However, in the urban district of Beijing houses along lanes still occupy one third of the total area, providing housing for half the population, so many lanes have survived. In this respect, we see the old in the new in Beijing as an ancient yet modern city.  

From the name of a lane, one can guess its origin, find its location, or trace its historical, commercial or cultural backgrounds. However, the meaning of lane has extended to have cultural aspects. Whenever people talk about Beijing, they will naturally think of lanes. Lanes are where Beijing people, especially the old Beijing people, live, so they are known as a window onto Beijing folk life. And some people even consider lanes as the " encyclopedia of Beijing" or the " museum of the history and culture of Beijing".

If you want to really know Beijing, to know its people and to know their life, you'd better go to see a lane or, if possible, live among the locals. "Lane culture" is part of the culture of Beijing. Many famous opera and dramas are based on the themes of the "lane life". A visit to lanes in the daytime and enjoying a drama put on by the Beijing People's Art Theatre, such as " Teahouse" or " Small Lane" in the evening will help you appreciate the fundamental part the lane plays in Beijing life.              

Why are Beijing's lanes called Lane

According to historical records, a small scale city first appeared in the Beijing area about 3,000 years ago. It was not until the Jin dynasty in the 12 century that Beijing became the capital city for the first time. At that time, there were no Lanes in Beijing, just streets and roads. The word "Lane" is said to originate from the Mongolian language which is one of China's minority language. It means a passage between rows of Siheyuan courtyard house, the traditional residence of Beijingers, each consisting of rectangular courtyard surrounded by one-storyed tile-roofed houses, usually one to six meters wide, lanes are where life was going on for the last 700 years since they first appeared in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

In the early 13 century, a Mongolian tribe from the north became very strong. Led by Genghis Khan, the Mongolians occupied Beijing, then the capital of the Jin. In 1260, Kubla Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan established Yuan Dynasty. Kubla Khan set Beijing as the capital city. Unfortunately, the old city was destroyed during the war. So they had to rebuild it.

In old China, all the structures and roads were required to be symmetrical. So the city was well designed. First, they had to find a centre, and then built a regular square city. After construction was completed, they asked all the residents who lived in the old city to move to the new one. In this newly-built city, you can find streets and Lanes. At that time, there was a clear definition for a street or a lane. A 36-metre-wide road was called a big street. An 18-metre-wide one was called a small street. And a 9-metre-wide lane was called a Lane.

Most of the Lanes which remain today were formed in the Ming and Qing dynasties. But you can still find some from the Yuan dynasty. For instance, the Zhuanta Lane in Xisi on the west side of the city is a typical example. In the Yuan dramas this Lane was often mentioned. The area was also the home of famous playwright Guan Hanqing, China's Shakespeare of the Yuan Dynasty.      

Over the last 7 centuries with the growth of the city, more and more Lanes appeared, but they were not the same as the old ones. During the Qing Dynasty in the 17th century, the Manchu people who used to live in North China ruled. After they overthrew the Ming Dynasty, they divided Manchu people into eight banners

Each of them was distinguished by a different colour. With the growth of the population the city had to expand. So the Manchu people with all the banners, lived in the inner city. Han people, whether high ranking or ordinary people were driven to the outer city. There they built their houses randomly. And a lot of Lanes appeared.

Since then, Beijing has quite many Lanes with different shapes, Lengths or directions. The shortest one is just 10 meters' long, and the narrowest Lane is only about 40 centimeters' wide. some Lanes have more than 20 turns. And slanting Lanes also appeared due to the terrain. The majority of lanes run straight from east to west, some from north to south. That has resulted from the need for houses to face south so as to take in more sunshine and resist cold wind from the north.

Even though the city wasn't symmetrical, it promoted the development of the economy. In the inner city, all the places were designed for their functions. For instance, the Forbidden City was the court, and behind it was the market. The left side of the center was the place to worship ancestors, while the right side was for worshipping all kinds of gods. Later in the outer city free markets appeared due to the needs of the local people. Such as markets for furs, jewels, silk, hats and shoes, grain and so on. Gradually, some of these became shopping centers like Qianmen     (or the Front Gate ), Dongdan and Xisipailou (Xisi Archway).

However, transportation was not as convenient as today, so street peddlers emerged. They wandered from lane to lane selling various goods or providing all kinds of services. People could judge their goods from their singing or the sounds of their special instruments. At sunset, the peddlers selling food were among the first to come. The food they sold include Youzhagao, which is deep-fried twisted dough sticks, baked pan-cakes, seasoned millet mush, armen tea and so on. A little bit later, peddlers who sold vegetables of daily necessities would appear. A barber never shouts, his instrument is a big pair of scissors and an ironing stick. But now it's unusual to hear such melodious cries of sounds.

Beijing's lanes are not only an appellation for the lanes but also a kind of architecture. It's the living environment of ordinary Beijingers. It reflects the vicissitude of society. Most of the Lanes look almost the same with grey walls and bricks. Lanes are a happy kind of place. There are often 4 to 10 families with an average of 20 people sharing the rooms of one courtyard compels. The main attraction of Lane life is a friendly and interpersonal communication. Children living in one courtyard play together and grow up like one family. For the eldly, the charm comes from each other's company.

Well, is Beijing denying 700 years of its history by destroying many of its lanes? Recently, a new style of apartment building has been built in Beijing. Even though, it has four stories, it is built in the same way of Siheyuan and it has a very traditional name: Ju'er Lane or the Chrysanthemum Lane. People who live there enjoy the convenience of modern facilities while maintaining old tradition.                 

Beijing Siheyuan

Traditionally most urban Chinese used to live in quadrangles called siheyuan or "four-side enclosed courtyards." These courts, as the name implies, are formed by inward-facing houses on four sides, closed in by enclosure walls. A small or medium-sized siheyuan usually has its main or only entrance gate built at the southeastern corner of the quadrangle with a screen wall just inside to prevent outsiders from peeping in.

Such a residence offers space, comfort and quiet privacy. It is also good for security as well as protection against dust and storms. Grown with plants and flowers, the court is also a sort of garden.

In feudal times, the courtyard dwellings were built according to the traditional concepts of the five elements that were believed to compose the universe, and the eight diagrams of divination. The gate was made at the southeast corner which was the "wind" corner, and house was made to face the south with the main building on the north side which was believed to belong to "water"-- an element to prevent fire.

All the quadrangles, from their size and style one could tell whether they belonged to private individuals or the powerful and rich. The simple house of an ordinary person has only one courtyard with the main building on the north facing, across the court, the southern building with rooms of northern exposure and flanked on the sides by the buildings of eastern and western chambers. The mansion of a titled or very rich family would have two or more courtyards, one behind another, with the main building separated from the view of the southern building by a wall with a fancy gate or by a guoting (walk-through pavilion). Behind the main building there would be a lesser house in the rear and, connected with the main quadrangle, small "corner courtyards".

The lord and lady of the house lived in the sunny main building and their children in the side chambers. The southern row on the opposite side, those nearest to the entrance gate, were generally used as the study, the reception room, the man servants' dwelling or for sundry purposes. Not only residences but ancient palaces, government offices, temples and monasteries were built basically on the pattern of the siheyuan, a common feature of traditional Chinese architecture. The courtyard  is the home of many Beijing residents though quite a large proportion of them have now moved to high buildings in new residential areas. A courtyard, a compound with houses around a courtyard, is a typical form of ancient Chinese architecture. A standard siheyuan usually consists of houses on its four sides, and the house which stands at the north end and faces the south is called the " main house" or " north house", the ones on both sides are called " side houses", and the one which stands at the south end and faces north is called " opposite house" or " south house".

Its gate is usually at the southeastern corner according to the Taoist thinking. Normally there is a screen-wall inside the gate so that outsiders can not see directly into the courtyard and it is also believed to protect the houses from evil spirits. Outside the gate of some large siheyuan, there are a pair of stone lions on each side. The gate doors are usually painted vermilion and have large copper door rings. Usually a whole family lives in compound. The elder generation live in the main house, the younger generation live in the side houses, and the south house is usually their sitting room or study.

All the houses have large windows at the front and small windows high up in the back walls. Some houses do not even have back windows. Some large compounds have two or more courtyards, inhabited by a big traditional extended family with several generations. Since housing is one of the most difficult problems in a large city like Beijing, the siheyuan is now often lived in by several families and large parts of the courtyard have been taken over by each family to build kitchens or additional rooms and storage places.

There are still some nice siheyuan in Beijing, mainly former mansions of princes, some of which have been turned into museums, and others are lived in by high officials or used as government offices.                                                                                     

Beijing's Gates

Nine inside, seven outside, four in the Imperial City is a phrase used by Beijing residents since Ming Dynasty as an aid to remembering the number of gates in the walls of their city.

On a tour of Beijing, the visitor learns about the different functions of old Beijing's nine city gates, the meaning of the saying "East for the wealthy, west for the noble, north for the poor, and south for the lowly." Each of the 20 gates had its own functions and has left many touching stories. Zhengyangmen was the pass the Emperor used for travel to the Temple of Heaven for worshipping ceremonies. Only the imperial sedans and carriages were allowed to use the gate, while funeral ceremonies and carriages were forbidden to pass here. The most popular carts passing Chongwenmen were those carrying liquor as distilleries were then located in the south and east of the city.

Chaoyangmen was the gate of grain since it linked transportation between the Forbidden City and Tongzhou (present-day Tongxian). Tongzhou (Tongxian) which was the beginning of the Grand Canal linking Beijing and Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. Tribute grain from the south was shipped to the capital on the canal. Warehouses were built close to Chaoyangmen. Today's Nanmencang, Beimencang, Xintaicang and Lumicang were used to store rice in the past. Xizhimen was the water gate named for its position as the gateway to Jade Spring Mountain which was the source of the imperial drinking water.

Gates were also connected with walls which were used to defend Beijing. On top of the wall, special facilities in the shape of sawtooth were built to shield arrows and other weapons. Other facilities included blockades that prevented soldiers from falling down the wall. Building the walls was a costly project. It was once reported that more than 40 million bricks and great quantities of earth, lime and timber were used to wall the city.

Nowadays, Beijing's city walls have all been demolished. Only a few gate towers are left. The Old Beijing Mini Landscape Park presents a complete picture of the 20 city gates and walls, although in a scaled down version.

The great architect Kuei Xiang of the Ming Dynasty adopted Chinese astrology when he built the city. In the theory, the number Nine represented the divine Heaven, the number Five the Dragon and the Earth in the middle of the Universe. Under such a theory, Kuei Xiang constructed nine gates, five fortresses and a platform in the shape of the Chinese character Earch in the middle of the palace. The design symbolized the Emperor's divinity of both the Nine and the Five.

From the modern point of view, Beijing's arrangement of the axis thoroughfare and four lakes of Nanhai, Zhonghai, Beihai and Houhai is shaped like two dragons raising their heads rivaling for a pearl. We see the dragon and alarming pearl motif often repeated in ancient Chinese ceramics and elsewhere in the artifacts of Chinese antiquity. It is a deeply symbolic as well as artistically fanciful and articulated design.                         

A Local Beijinger's Life

I was born in Beijing, the capital of P. R. China. Before I reached 7, I almost knew nothing about the "real" Beijing. I was grown up in a "siheyuan", then I went to elementary school at 7 years old and I began to knew more about Beijing, such a lovely place.

You know nowadays Beijing gets more and more modernized, but  I want to introduce you what I remembered when I was a young girl, that's from late 1970's to early 1980's.

Lane. It is somehow an alley, very narrow, and short. The narrowest one, I once saw, allows only two people walk parallel. If two people meet each other, on bicycles. One of them has to go backward to allow the other one past first. Fortunately, such a narrow Lane is usually not very long, or the retrieving person has to go all the way back to the end of it. The usual Lane can allow two to four bicycles go parallel.  What besides the Lane are residents' houses, most of them are siheyuan. There're no trees or other decorations since Lane is not very wide, every inch of its space is used by passengers.

Bicycles In most cities in China, people use bicycles to go to work. Beijing is not an exception. Bicycle is the main tool of transportation within the city, besides public bus and subway. The model of those commonly used bicycles is different from mountain bike. It's simpler, slower and cheaper. The back seat can be used to carry another person. If adding an extra small seat in front of the main seat, people can carry their kids in the bicycle too. Now with more and more transportation tools appearing in Beijing, this method has been gradually given up.

Food The most outstanding character of common Beijing people's eating style, at least several years ago, is the "Cabbage in Winter". In winter, because of Beijing's geographic position, it's hard to get fresh vegetables. So cabbage is the most commonly food on the dinner table. Usually a family would buy several hundred kilograms and stored them in the "Di Jiao", a small storage place underground.

I remember when I was young, every two or three weeks, my father would lead my sister, my brother and me the "Di Jiao". What we did, was moving all the remaining cabbage out, peeling out the spoiled leaves, and putting them under sunshine. After several hours, we put them back into the "Di Jiao" again. In this way we could keep them fresh for longer time.                                                                       

Peking Roast Duck

Peking Duck has the reputation of being the most delicious food Beijing has to offer. Some find it a bit too greasy, but others get hooked after one taste. In any case, a Peking Duck dinner is usually a fixed item on any Beijing tour itinerary. Eating Peking Duck is also one of the two things you are absolutely supposed to do while in Beijing. The other one is climbing the Great Wall.

The place that offers the best Peking Duck is the Quan Ju De Restaurant, which has outlets at Qianmen, Hepingmen and Wangfujing. It was established 130 years ago and, if you count from the time when founder Yang Renquan began his duck business, it is 160 years old.

At Quan Ju De, ducks are immersed in condiments unique to the restaurant and are roasted directly over flames stoked by fruit-tree wood. The best roasted duck is date-red, shining with oil, but with a crisp skin and tender meat.

The chef than cuts the meat into thin slices, each having a piece of skin. Then the meat is served with very thin pancakes, Chinese onions and special sauce. The way to eat it is to coat the thin pancake with sauce, slap on a few pieces of meat and roll up the pancake. Chopsticks are optional: it is much easier just to grab the thing with your bare hands. Another famous restaurant offering Peking duck is the Bian Yi Fang (Cheap Restaurant), which opened in 1855, nine years earlier than Quan Ju De. At Bian Yi Fang, roasting is done in an enclosed container fueled with crop stalks. 

Beijing Local Culture

Liulichang

Liulichang is a small Chinese-style street with shop facades bearing Ming and Qing dynasty architectural features. With brightly painted doors and eaves and gracefully curved black-tiled-roofs buildings, a little of old Beijing's lifestyle is retained here.

The China Bookstore, Rongbaozhai and Jiguge are the most famous antique stores in Liulichang. The China Bookstore located at the back of a courtyard of the first complex on the north, sells second-hand foreign language books. A used bookstore in China, particularly one that has foreign language offerings, was once a rare thing, but this one also has a curious organizational style. All the foreign-language materials are mixed together. English-language works stand spine-to-spine with Russian and German works. Literature shares shelf space with psychology and history. Some of the books are stamped with university library and church seals. Antiques like this, worth a fair amount anywhere, go for no small sum in Liulichang. Good deals may be found among the Chinese books, however, if you are patient and know what you want.

Along the street, peddlers hawk snacks, groceries, toys and copper coins, all kind of small commodities. Merchants race to their doors with a welcoming "hello, hello" for all their customers, but they all rack their brains to attract foreigners' attention. Some offer free seal-carving service and they even can find a perfect Chinese name for you if you like. Some shop owners invite folk artists to their shops such as an 80-year-old heir to the Qing Dynasty's royal embroidery tradition. It is amazing to watch this elderly man embroider a pair of little shoes for a pair of tiny feet.

Scholars who once came to the capital to sit for the imperial examination started this ancient market. Sometimes, they ran out of money and sold antiques, paintings and calligraphy to cover their journeys home. The cultural market gradually emerged there at the end of the Ming Dynasty (1644-1911).                                        

Imperial Court Food

Imperial Court Food is a style of Chinese food that has its origins in the Imperial Palace. It is based on the foods that were served to the Emperor and his court. Now, it has become a major school of Chinese cooking and there are several places where you can sample this unique flavor. Fang Shan in Beihai Park and Ting Li Guan in the Summer Palace are the best ones. 150 years ago you would never have been able to eat this stuff, so give it a shot. It is a little expensive, however.

Imperial Official Food and Medicinal Food

This first type of food is particular to Beijing. In the past, Beijing officials were all very picky about what type of food they ate. The most famous type of Official food is Tan Family Food, which can be had in the Beijing Hotel. This is the preferred food of the Qing Dynasty official Tan Zongling, and was later introduced into restaurants. Another type of food is that which is described in the classic novel Dream of Red Mansions. The author, Cao Xueqin, described a number of dishes in the book and now there are several restaurants which serve this style of dish. The most famous place is the Beijing Grand View Garden Hotel. This hotel is right next to the Beijing's Grand View Garden which is modeled after the garden described in the Dream of Red Mansions. Other restaurants featuring this novel type of food are the Jinglun Hotel and Laijinyuxuan Restaurant in Zhongshan Park.

There are hundreds of dishes that are medicated with such choice tonic materials as ginseng, deer musk, bear's paw, Chinese wolf berry and soft-shelled turtle, the cream of the chop of Chinese medicine. The "Yang Sheng Zhai" Restaurant of Xiyuan Hotel has the best reputation among such food. Although it has been changed to Sichuan Restaurant, it still offers medicinal foods.

Hotpot

There are basically two kinds of hotpot restaurants in Beijing: Mongolian style and Sichuan style. The staple of both types of hotpot is mutton (yang rou). The meat is usually sliced frozen so that it curls up into a tube shape. Then you place the meat into the hotpot, which is a copper pot containing a boiling soup base. After a few seconds the meat is cooked and you dip it into a sesame butter sauce. The verb describing the action of cooking the meat this way is called "shuan". Other shuan-ables include beef (fei niu), frozen tofu (dong dofu), Chinese cabbage (bai cai), bean sprouts (dou miao), and glass noodles (fen si). Spicy Sichuan hotpot has a soup base which can be described as either super spicy or mildly radioactive, but the pot is often divided into half spicy, half non-spicy soup pots. The soup base for Mongolian style is not spicy, and usually consists of some vegetables and seafood.

Famous Mongolian style hotpot restaurants are Neng Ren Ju at Baitasi, and Dong Lai Shun to the east of Tian'anmen Square. The most well-known Sichuan style hotpot restaurant is Jin Shan Cheng.                                                                

Traditional Snacks

Beijing has over 250 types of traditional snack foods. Many of them are made of glutinous rice, soy beans or fried materials. The king of all snack foods is called "dou zhi". This is a strange-tasting, greenish-grey, fermented bean porridge, and if you can manage to eat a whole bowl of it you will earn great respect from your Beijing friends. Supposedly it is an acquired taste, but who wants to acquire it? For a taste of snack foods from outside of Beijing, take a trip to Snack Street, just off of Wangfujing Street. Starting from about 5:00 p.m., the vendors line up in their stalls and start selling foods from all parts of the country. You can have an entire meal's worth of food walking from one end of the street to the other, trying this and that along the way.