A Sunday Stroll

A renovated courtyard house.

Themed restaurant.

One of the most important meeting point in Hutongs. Public toilets are hard to find in these Hutongs. This is also the rubbish collection point.

Themed pub.

Old tailor shop.

Unfurnished courtyard entrance. A few families live here.

Confucian Temple.

Traditional chinese milk drink. (yogurt)

Took some friends for a brunch in the eastern parts of downtown beijing somewhere along the 2nd ring road. One of the oldest neighbourhood where many old courtyard houses are transformed into themed restaurant, pub and shops. Throught the years, many younger residents had moved out as living conditions are pretty tough and perfer much smaller but more comfortable living conditions in newer developed areas. The older folks still occupied most of these houses, goes on with their daily chores and ways of life, sitting under the old tree with small tiny wooden stools talking about the old days or taking a nap after a game of chess. As it is a sunday, their grandchildrens are seen running up and down the street playing with their guns and swords made from cardboards and newspaper. It is far too expensive to re-renovate these old courtyard houses and very soon one by one theses houses are slowly transform for commercial use. One of my friend said it will costs between 10 to 20 million reminbi to purchase a reasonable size courtyard house in Guozijian street. After a good brunch at this restaurant called The VineYard, we went for a stroll down the famous old street.

Guozijian (originally named Chengxian street) is one of the most famous Hutong (old alleyways) in beijing. Four colorfully painted archways stand each at the east and west ends of the street. Along this street, there is Confucian Temple, in memory of the education advocator Confucius.

On the east side is Yonghegong Temple, the largest Lama temple in beijing.

Along this street, there are many interesting shops selling arts and crafts, old furniture, clothings, fruit store as well as fortune tellers. These are some of the sketches I did while strolling down these lanes while my friends goes shop hopping from fashion, souvenirs, local crafts work and food. Cars are not allows on most of the hutongs, streets and lanes here which makes these street one of the cleanest place in beijing. Bicycles are encourage however I perfer to walk and enjoy and feels the place. I will come again to sketch another time in another hutong street.