走进胡同 Walk into Hutong

Host Ellen: Although many of the old houses in Beijing are being taken down in order to provide housing for its residence and to modernize the city, if you walk just a really short walk, from the main street in Beijing Chang'an avenue, you'll discover that you made it right into the middle of this, incredible piece of peace with the history of hundreds of years.

字板一：走进胡同
Board One: Walk into Hutong

旁白：从北京城中喧闹繁华的大道，随意弯进一条小路，你就可以看到另外一种景象：密密地排着的平房，窄窄的小巷，悠闲自在的老百姓……这就来到了北京的“胡同”里。
Aside：If you walk into a small lane from a busy and noisy main road in Beijing, you will be able to see another view: rows of bungalows, narrow alleys and casual Beijing dwellers…. Welcome to Beijing Hutongs.

Ellen Aside: People talk about live in the hutongs, but actually they don’t live in the alleys, they live in the buildings on either side of the alley which is called siheyuan or courtyard houses. They called courtyard houses is because their rooms were built around the courtyard.

旁白：“四合院”是中国民居中历史最悠久，分布最广泛的建筑形式，是汉族民居形式的典型。北京的胡同，实际上就是这大大小小的民居院落之间形成的通道。
Aside：Siheyuan is a form of architecture which has the longest history and covers the vastest area. It is a typical form of Han people’s buildings. Hutongs in Beijing are in fact alleys formed by houses of different sizes.

采访民俗专家马铁汉：北京的胡同是由来已久了，一般的说辽金时代开始形成的。
Interviews with a folk custom expert, Mr.Ma Tiehan：Hutongs in Beijing have a long history. Generally speaking, hutongs came into Beijing in Liao and Jin Dynasty.

城市规划家郑一鸣：胡同之名早在元朝就出现了，原意为居民聚居的地方。
A city planning expert， Mr. Zheng Yiming：The name of hutong has already appeared in Yuan Dynasty, which means a place wher many residents live together.

采访民俗专家马铁汉：有人问来源，为什么叫胡同，说法在学界也不统一。但是一般地说，它是来于蒙语hu tong 。
Interview with a folk custom expert, Mr. Ma Tiehan：Some people ask about the origin of the name of hutong. The academic circle also does not have a unified explanation. Generally, it came from a Mongolian word “ hu tong”.

旁白：北京作为国都的历史已经有700多年了。随着城市的发展，人口越来越多，房屋越来越多，胡同也就越来越多。
Aside: The history of Beijing as a capital city is more than 700 years. With the development of the city, there are more and more people, more and more houses and more and more hutongs.

采访胡同居民：过去讲，老北京是“有名的胡同3600，没名的胡同赛牛毛”，整个像血管网络一样把北京城全部串起来。
Interview with a Hutong dweller：There is an old saying that old Beijing has 3600 named hutongs and countless unnamed hutongs. Hutongs are like blood vessels which connects all parts of Beijing.

郑一鸣：据最新统计，北京胡同大约有6000多条，其中直接称“胡同”的就有1316条，把它们加起来不比万里长城短。
Zheng Yiming: According the latest statistics, there are more than 6000 hutongs in Beijing. 1316 among them have “hutong” this word in their names. If all the hutongs were connected, the length will not be shorter than Great Wall.