People say that the real culture of Beijing is “the culture of hutong” and “the culture of siheyuan”. Hutongs are unique ancient alleys in Beijing formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another.
Beijing, as a whole, is like a complete and harmonious piece of art, featuring an orderly structure and layout, a well-balanced design and arrangement. Beijing considers the Forbidden City as its center, and all the streets around it are arranged by latitude and longitude. The chessboard-like blocks are of primitive simplicity, complete and harmonious. Numerous hutongs are still found in Beijing despite modernization, though at one time there were several thousand more. Most of them were created during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.