Stroll through the hutongs

Author: Yang Dazhou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: This album tells the cultural origins and essence of Beijing hutongs through exquisite images and concise text, presenting readers with a vivid picture of Beijing hutongs. At the age of three, I moved to Beijing and lived in hutongs. My only impression is of a few yellowed photographs with beautiful yachts and rockeries in the background. In early autumn of 1978, in a large auditorium at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, I sold books confiscated during the Cultural Revolution. Among the mountain-like piles of books, there was a small booklet with many pages torn out. The remaining pages contained a short story about Beijing hutongs, titled "Baihua Shenchu" (Deep in the Plum Blossoms): It is said that during the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty, a young Zhang couple bought over twenty acres of land in a small alley south of Xizhimen and made a living by growing vegetables. Frugal and diligent, they gradually accumulated wealth and built rockeries, ponds, and thatched pavilions in their garden, planting peonies, Chinese roses, and lotuses in the ponds. Every spring and autumn, the garden was filled with blooming flowers, fragrant scents, and an elegant charm, attracting many scholars and literati of the time to come for outings, poetry readings, and wine-tasting parties. From then on, this place was called Baihua Shenchu. For a penny, I bought this book!