China: Beijing: Hutong, Siheyuan, and Highrises

Beijing's old city, until the 1950s delimited by the wall around the Inner and Outer cities, is now delimited by the city's Second Ring Road.  Beyond that road lies a vast area of modern construction, mostly highrise.  Within the old city, however, there are still hundreds of the city's famous alleys (hutong) and single-story courtyard houses (siheyuan).   Developers in recent years have elbowed their way in to make a killing, but the problem is deeper than that.  It goes back to Mao.  He encouraged the city's growth, whose population went from half a million in 1949 to five million in 1970.  He did little to house the newcomers, though, except allow them to move into the siheyuan, which went from housing one family to housing half a dozen.  After 1957, the owners couldn't even charge rent.  Restoring the siheyuan to their classic character, in other words, means not just fixing them up but displacing most of the people living in them.

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