Nanluoguxiang and the Hutongs: Walking Beijing's Old Alleys

Hutongs (胡同, hútòng) are the grey-brick alleys that made up almost all of Beijing before the 1990s: single-storey courtyard houses packed shoulder to shoulder, laid out on a grid that in places dates to the Yuan dynasty. Most were demolished. What survives clusters in Dongcheng, north of the Forbidden City, and Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷, Nánluógǔxiàng) is the spine of the best-preserved block.

Be warned: the main lane itself is a commercial gauntlet — bubble tea, yoghurt in clay pots, printed T-shirts, roasted sausages, and a river of domestic tourists on weekends. It is not the authentic Beijing anyone promised you. The trick is that the sixteen side hutongs running east and west off it are almost untouched, and they empty out within twenty metres of the turn. Mao'er Hutong (帽儿胡同) has grand old courtyard gates with carved stone drum plinths. Ju'er Hutong (菊儿胡同) has an award-winning modern courtyard housing project worth a look. Banchang Hutong (板厂胡同) has a couple of quiet cafés in restored siheyuan.

What you actually see: bicycles chained to trees, cabbages stacked against walls in autumn, public toilets every hundred metres (because most of these houses still have none), tiny barbers, old men playing xiangqi, and caged songbirds hung outside gates in the morning.

For a scruffier, less-visited alternative, Wudaoying Hutong (五道营胡同) on Line 5 near Beixinqiao has a similar café scene with a fraction of the crowds. Both are free, and both are best explored with no fixed route at all.