We want to visit a couple of Hutongs in Beijing. Any recomendations?

Better go quickly, many are being torn down and replaced with apartments. Just go to the area of the Hutongs in Beijing and you will find rickshaw drivers that can take you around. If not happy with that, any hotel you stay at can assist you. If you do go make sure you get one where you can have tea at one of the homes and let them tell you what is going on now and how it was before. Very interesting . John

In the "peninsula" formed by lakes Houhai, Qianhai, and Beihai, there is an entire area of hutongs which have been designated as a preservation area. If you visit Prince Gong's Palace (worth a trip), you can combine it with a hutong walk or a hutong "tour" by bargaining with the many pedicabs who hang around waiting for tourists.

If you end your tour around dinner time, you can stop off at one of the many restaurants around the two "Back Lakes": Houhai and Qianhai, which is also an area where some bars and clubs stay open late.

You mean by the Peninsula Hotel?

The area Easytraveler is describing is near the Bell Tower and Drum Tower. You can easily spend a full day in the neighborhood, wandering through the hutong, walking around the lakes, eating/drinking at a restaurant or two, and just observing Chinese life.

Sorry to have posted something confusing.

Here's a map of Beijing:

http://www.beijingtrip.com/beijingmap.html

If you look about the center of the map just above Beihai Park, you'll see two smaller lakes: Houhai and Qianhai ("hai" means "lake", "sea&quot.

In the area surrounded by those three seas: Houhai, Qianhai, and Beihai is the preservation area.

Hope this helps!

Great map, ET.

Ruben -- Beihai Park (North Sea Park) is to the northwest of the Palace Museum, pretty park where the locals go for weekend outings. The Back Lakes is to the north of it with Houhai (Back Sea), Qianhai (Front Sea) and tiny Xihai (West Sea), a preserved hutong area that shows a slice of life in Beijing before the highrises took over.

http://mccross-in-beijing.blogspot.c...ack-lakes.html