认识胡同 Know about Hutong

城市规划师郑一鸣：北京城市的街道的格局是一致的。
Interview with a city planning expert Zheng Yiming: The directions of hutongs in Beijing are due south, due north, due east and due west, which is in accordance with the pattern of roads in Beijing.

旁白：北京城南北方向有一条中轴线，皇城（故宫）就在这条中轴线的中心位置，整个城市就是以这条中轴线为核心，呈东西对称分布的。
Aside: An axis line runs north and south direction in Beijing. The Imperial Palace (The Forbidden City) is in the middle of this axis line. The whole city is divided by this line in a symmetrical pattern.

旁白：而标准的四合院一般都是坐北朝南，东、西、南、北四面都建有房屋，并合围出一个敞亮的院落。这样既可以抵御冬天的西北风，又可以多得日光照射。
Aside: Generally speaking, a standard siheyuan faces south. Houses are built in the four directions, east, west, south and north and form a spacious courtyard. It can defense the strong northwest wind in winter and enjoy sunshine.

采访城市规划师郑一鸣: 这种方方正正的方位感深深影响了北京人的生活，同时影响了北京人的思维方式。你要到北京问路，很少会有人给你指路的时候说左或用右来给你指路。
Interview with a city planning expert Mr. Zheng Yiming: The strong sense of direction has deeply influenced the life of people in Beijing and their thinking as well. If you ask the way in Beijing, it is seldom to hear someone use right or left to tell you the way.

小表演：
A small act

甲：请问，去中国银行怎么走？
A: How can I get at Bank of China?

乙：一直往东走。
B: Straight to the east.

旁白：北京人就是这样具有极强的方位意识，给人指路，无需参照物，仅用“东”、“南”、“西”、“北”几个方位词就可把位置说得准确无误。
Aside: You can see that citizens in Beijing have such a strong sense of direction. When they tell people the way, they do need any reference objects. They can tell the exact location by using the few direction words: “east”, “west”, “south” and “north”.

北京有一条最长的胡同——交民巷，就是在中轴线这里分成了东西，东边的叫东交民巷，西边的叫西交民巷，它与长安街平行，全长6．5公里。在明清的地图上称为“东西江米巷”。
The longest hutong in Beijing is Jiaomin Lane, which is divided by this axis line into the east side and the west side. The east side is named East Jiaomin Lane. It is in parallel with Changan Avenue. The total length is 6.5 km. In maps in Ming and Qing Dynasty, it was called “East and West Jiangmi Lane”.

由于历史久远，北京胡同可谓形形色色。这是北京最窄的一条胡同——钱市胡同，位于珠市口大街附近，胡同中最窄的地方只有40厘米宽，两个人相遇时只有侧着身子才能过去。
Because of its long history, we can see all kinds of hutongs today. The narrowest hutong in Beijing, Qianshi hutong, is located near Zhushikou street. The narrowest part of this hutong is only 40 cm. When two people encounter, they have to walk sideways.

而且，胡同也不都是直来直去的，也有弯曲迂徊的，九湾胡同是北京拐弯最多的胡同，一个胡同拐了十三道的弯。叫九湾胡同，是用“九”来形容它拐的弯儿多。
Besides, not all hutongs are straight. Some are crooked. Jiuwan hutong winds most in Beijing. It has 13 curves. We call it Jiuwan hutong to describe how winding it is. (Jiuwan in Chinese means nine curves.)

听了“九湾胡同”的名字，你也许会想，北京胡同的名称都是怎么来的呢？胡同既是老百姓居住的地方，那么胡同的命名就很随意了。胡同中的标志性建筑、官方的机构、集贸市场、特别的植物、居住过的名人，甚至胡同附近的知名的地名等等，都可以用来为胡同的命名。
When you hear the name of Jiuwan hutong, you might wonder how hutongs in Beijing got their names. Hutong is a place wher normal people live. So the naming of a hutong might be very casual. Landmark buildings, government institutions, markets, special plants and famous residents, or even nearby known place names and so on can be used in naming a hutong.

比如这个“千福胡同”，原称千佛寺胡同，因胡同中的千佛寺得名。这个“文丞相胡同”，就是以南宋丞相文天祥之名命名的。
For example, “Qianfu hutong”, Qianfu means “thousands of blessings”, was named as “Qianfosi hutong”, Qianfosi means “Temple of thousands of Buddhas hutong”, because Temple of Thousands of Buddhas is located there. “Premier Wen hutong” was named after a famous premier, Wen Tianxiang, in Nansong period.

可以说，胡同的名称是各有各的来历，各有各的讲究，各有各的传奇。不过，这里面突出的一点就是：人们善于利用汉语一音多字、一字多意的特点，为胡同赋予吉祥、美好的寓意。这便是中国文化中的“谐音文化”。
Therefore, each name has its own origin, history and legend. But there is one striking point: people are good at making uses of phonetically synonymous characters and multi-meaning characters to give hutongs beautiful and auspicious names.

采访梅兰芳故宫馆长：那个第二层画的是蝙蝠，蝠就是中国“福”的一种谐音，过去蝙蝠跟我们中国说的“福”音是一样的。汉字音是一样的，所以它是借用这种表示一种“吉祥”。
Interview with Director of Mei Lanfang Former Residence: The paintings on the second layer are bats (its Chinese pronunciation is Fu), which is phonetically synonymous with happiness in Chinese, which pronounced also as Fu. People like to adopt a character of same pronunciation to express their best wishes.

中国人不仅在房屋装饰上如此的讲究,就连屋内的摆设也是处处体现着对吉祥和美好生活的追求.
Chinese people do not only pay much attention to interior decoration, but also show their pursuit to an auspicious and happy life in interior furniture arrangements.

条案上摆放的是钟、瓶、镜子，组合起来它的含义，寓意非常的深，符合咱们中国传统文化。钟走起来有声音，滴答、滴答的声音，那么咱们取它的两个字，叫做终生平静，两个瓶子的组合叫做平平安安。
If we combine Chinese pronunciations of the clock, bottles, and the mirror on a table, different combinations will have very profound meaning respectively, which are in accordance with traditional Chinese culture. When a clock walks, it has a sound of ticking. If we use phonetic synonyms of clock and bottle, we can have a phrase which means to have a tranquil life. If we combine the name of two bottles, we can have a phrase with the meaning of “Be safe.”

从胡同的名称，到建筑的装饰，乃至室内的陈设，都非常讲究、非常巧妙地传达出中国老百姓对对幸福、美好、平安、吉祥的追求。
The pursuit of happiness, beauty, safety and luck of Chinese people are ingeniously and carefully demonstrated through the names of hutongs, the renovation of buildings and interior decoration.