Last weekend I had a 3 day weekend in Beijing and tried yet another hostel in the Qianamen area.  This one was close to the one I stayed at in October which had  the friendly cat and lots of local food and colour.   It’s part of a chain of 3 and I prefer it to the others.  It had more atmosphere and the staff were excellent.  While my room could have used a facelift it was perfectly servicable and the public areas  were in good condition.  The building was several hundred years old and served as a gentlemen’s club in the bad old days of the latter part of the Qing Dynasty.  No doubt it was well imbued with sex, opium and scandal.

This is one entrance.  The next is separated from it by some small rooms just like the one to the left of the first bike.

This is the other front entrance.

The street directly outside the front door. The weather was good during my visit so locals had washing and bedding hanging in the streets.

The hostel had a 3rd floor bar and relaxation area including a door to the outside where more rooms were tacked onto the roof.  This is a photo from there. The tree has a little competition for space.

Another view from the same spot.  Some rooves are flat and some are not.  High density living.

The area outside my door.  Each morning I was woken by people talking despite there being a sign requesting quiet.  it was in English and the two I saw on the last morning were cleaners removing and cleaning the tiny red lanterns hanging up.  It didn’t get me moving any earlier so I needed to visit the Forbidden City twice to see  a fair bit of the sights.

Furnishings in the courtyard section just inside the second front entrance.

Another view

It really looked as if a middle section of the building, including my room, had been built in sometime after its heyday as a gentlemens club.  It would account for the odd layout and the extraneous buildings at the front.

Nearby in the street.  These pedicabs offer tours of hutongs, narrow alleys, such as this.  Some hutongs have been renovated like Dashalan while others remain cramped and uncomfortable for the locals.  Some show nothing  from the street besides a wall and a red double door.  There was a program on TV tonight where owners of a hutong property were interviewed.  Theirs had been gutted and rebuilt to the traditional style with the addition of mod cons including  plumbing as part of a program and at government expense.  The program gave no indication of how extensive this rebuilding program is.  There has been criticism of the over demolition of hutong properties with loss of social and historical importance.  No doubt it was true but from what I’ve seen there are plenty left to keep such programs going into the distant future.   Yesterday the TV program showed a commercial hutong which had been completely renovated.  It was starkly different from the hutongs near the hostel.

I walked to a nearby open market and then around some of the neighbouring hutongs.  This is an open air market near the hostel.  It also included some small shops.

 

The fruit section was outside.Scene down a nearby street.  

A more upmarket shop

A brush salesman

Home with modern windows and doors.  In some places I’ve seen structures build so close to the road that they were  built around or used power poles and tree trunks as part of the structure.

Bicycle with hand warmers.  These hand warmers are common in  colder areas.