This is what I found out from an American website: It has record that in the 12th century B.C.when the Jin(大金国) had capital here called Zhongzhou (中都大兴府), streets and lanes appeared, but not hutongs. In 1276B.C., in the Yuan(元朝),Dadu - the capital city was built thronged with officals and nobles. Residential houses were set up for high-ranking officials side by side.Usually a compound with a courtyard with one-story houses(四合院儿)accommodated a single family. Small allys that ran between courtyard homes for proper draught and daylinght were earliest hutongs. The word "hotong" priginated from the word "hottog"(浩特)which means "well"(水井)in Mongolian. There were 29 hotongs at the time only. Most of the hotongs remained today were built in the Ming and Qing(明清两朝)resulted from block extension of imperial city. The Zhuanta Hutong(砖塔胡同)in Xisi(西四)on west side of the city was once mentioned in the Yuan dramas. It used to be the residential house for the noted playwright Guan Hanqing. China's Shakespeare of Yua dynasty. |