![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Beijing-IXUS-113.jpg\" "\\"Beijing")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis is one entrance.\u00a0 The next is separated from it by some small rooms just like the one to the left of the first bike.<\/p>\n
This is the other\u00a0front entrance.<\/p>\n The street directly outside the front door. The weather was good during my visit so locals had washing and bedding hanging in the streets.<\/p>\n The hostel had a 3rd floor bar and relaxation area\u00a0including a door to the outside where more rooms were tacked onto the roof.\u00a0 This is a photo from there. The tree has a little competition for space.<\/p>\n Another view from the same spot.\u00a0 Some rooves are flat and some are not.\u00a0 High density living.<\/p>\n The area outside my door.\u00a0 Each morning I was woken by people talking despite there being a sign requesting quiet.\u00a0 it was in English and the two I saw on the last morning were cleaners removing and cleaning the tiny red lanterns hanging\u00a0up.\u00a0 It didn’t get me moving any earlier so I needed to visit the Forbidden City twice to see\u00a0 a fair bit of the sights.<\/p>\n Nearby in the street.\u00a0 These pedicabs offer tours of hutongs, narrow alleys, such as this.\u00a0 Some hutongs have been renovated like Dashalan\u00a0while others remain cramped and uncomfortable for the locals.\u00a0 Some show nothing\u00a0 from the street besides a wall and a red double door.\u00a0 There was a program on TV tonight where owners of a hutong property were interviewed.\u00a0 Theirs had been gutted and rebuilt to the traditional style with the addition of mod cons\u00a0including \u00a0plumbing as part of a program and at government expense.\u00a0 The program gave no indication of how extensive this rebuilding program is.\u00a0 There has been criticism of the over demolition of hutong properties\u00a0with loss of social and historical importance.\u00a0\u00a0No doubt it was true but from what I’ve seen there are plenty left to keep\u00a0such programs going\u00a0into the distant future.\u00a0 \u00a0Yesterday the TV program showed a commercial hutong which had been completely renovated.\u00a0 It was starkly different from\u00a0the hutongs near the hostel.<\/p>\n I walked to a nearby open market and then around some of the neighbouring hutongs.\u00a0 This is an open air market near the hostel.\u00a0 It also included some small shops.<\/p>\n The fruit section was outside. A more upmarket shop<\/p>\n A brush salesman<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Furnishings in the courtyard section just inside the second front entrance.<\/p>\n<\/a>Another view<\/p>\n<\/a>It really looked as if\u00a0a middle section of the building, including my room,\u00a0had been built in sometime after its heyday as a gentlemens club.\u00a0 It would account for the odd layout\u00a0and the extraneous buildings at the front.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a>Scene down\u00a0a nearby\u00a0street.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n