Yesterday we spent touring the hutong area of Old Beijing with a perky guide named Coco who had a mighty giggle. She kept telling Alex to cover his mouth if he laughed at her because it made her more nervous. Anyway, the hutong area is composed of narrow alleyways "hutong", although the original meaning of the word was from Manchurian and had to do with wells, I think. Families live in walled clusters of homes which make them very dependent on each other. Steve, our guide grew up in the... read more
