We’ve received and publish this article written by Alessandra Fratoni

If it’s your first time in Beijing and you’ve never heard of the Hutong, or are familiar with them but only from what you’ve heard, you need to take a pen and paper and write down which are the top 5 Hutong in Beijing that you can’t miss.

First of all we need to clarify what the Hutong are and where they came from.

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My story in Beijing started in 2004 when I visited it for the first time. There was no doubt that it was love at first sight. A ten-day visit was enough for me to decide that I wanted to go back for much longer.

I had to wait five years to go back, and that time I arrived on the mythical Transsiberian Railway, from Moscow. I took advantage of the visit to go to a job interview. Six months later, I was moving to Beijing without a return ticket.

I lived and worked in Beijing for almost 5 years. At the end of 2014, I decided to move to Barcelona, where I currently manage a small Chinese language and culture school. Beijing is my second home, and I try to go back at least once a year.

This article is a guide that summarizes everything that I have learned living on the Chinese capital over these years. [Read more…]

Continuing our series of articles on Beijing, in today’s article, I want to talk about a place which, even though it is no longer an alternative plan, remains one of my favorite parts of the city.

If you are looking for a general overview, you can read our complete guide about visiting Beijing.

What is District 798?

District 798 is a former industrial area created in the 1950s which reached its peak during the period of the Great Leap Forward. However, since the opening up of the Chinese economy by Deng Xiaoping, it started to decline bit by bit until becoming almost completely abandoned at the beginning of the 1990s. [Read more…]