Ever wondered why hutongs (胡同, hú tòng) are called hutongs, and not, just plain old alley or lane? Well, if any 胡同串子 (hú tòng chuàn zi) (hutong wanderer) among you have been to Shijia Hutong Museum (史家胡同博物館, shǐ jiā hú tòng bó wù guǎn), then you'll probably know. For those who don't, what follows is a little history lesson.

So what are hutongs, then?

胡同 (hú tòng) is the name given to the generally grid-like alleyways (小巷, xiǎo xiàng) that snake across Beijing. They're very old, and mostly residential, but have had a habit over their long history of hiding some of the best in the capital's cafés (咖啡館, kā fēi guǎn), bars (酒吧, jiǔ bā), and hole-in-the-wall eateries (餐館, cān guǎn). In a way, the hutongs are some of the last places you'll see real Beijing life as it's been – for the most part at least – centuries.

Their history goes way back to before Beijing was Beijing, way back to when it was Khanbaliq – 大都 (Dà dū) in Chinese – the capital of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) (元朝, yuán cháo). It was during this period that thin lanes were built centered on the capital's wells (水井, shuǐ jǐng), or hottok. The name sticks, it's transliterated into Chinese, and that's the end of it, right? Not quite.

According to the exhibit in the museum, there are a few guesses as to the origin of the term. The second postulation states hutong derives from the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 AD) (漢朝, hàn cháo) term for lane – 巷 xiàng – which back in the day was hong or hu dong. During the Liao (916-1125) and Jin (1115-1234) Dynasties (遼金時期, liáo jīn shí qī), 胡同 hu dong came into prominence in northern China.

It wasn't until the Ming Dynasty (明朝, míng cháo) (1368-1644) that the word hutong finally came into being, albeit with a radical added into the mix.

The radical (偏旁, piān páng) in question was 行 (xíng), which in this case means "to walk", which surrounded both 胡 and 同 to form 衚衕 hutong. With the added xing radical, the word forms to mean "a place where people walk."

Finally, in the Qing Dynasty (清朝, qīng cháo) (1644-1911), the term was simplified to the hutong we know today, doing away with the xing radical altogether. And with that, as they say, the rest is history.

來源：The Beijinger
編輯：萬月英