Why are hutongs in Beijing called hutongs?

Beijing was the capital as early as the Yuan Dynasty. At that time Beijing was called Dadu, not Beijing. The Yuan Dynasty was founded by Mongols, and the word Hutong is actually a transliteration of Mongolian, which means street. Although the Mongolian rule was overthrown later, the name Hutong has been established among the people in Beijing, so it has continued.

The earliest hutong names in Beijing historical records include Huonong, Huotuan and Hudong. There are several explanations, such as water well, fire tunnel and hutong Datong. More people believe that the word Hutong comes from the pronunciation of the word well in Mongolian. At that time, in order to prevent fire, many hutongs were equipped with wells. In any case, it is an indisputable fact that the word Hutong has been a proper noun in Beijing's urban construction since the Yuan Dynasty. The word Hutong itself is printed with profound ethnic customs and strong charm of old Beijing culture, which appeared more than a century before the name Beijing. Hutongs in Beijing first appeared in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties.

When Kublai Khan was building the capital, he made a comprehensive planning and design of the capital according to Zhou Li. Each gate of the capital has built a main road, from which a chessboard-shaped interval layout is drawn. These partitions, which are convenient for people and cars to travel, are called streets, small streets and hutongs according to their width. It's colder in winter in the north. Because of the need for sunshine and resistance to the cold wind, Beijing's hutongs are mostly east-west, and north-south hutongs are suitable for different places.

According to documents, in Yuan Dynasty, the main street was 24 steps wide, the side street was 12 steps wide and the alley was 6 steps wide, which was less than the current 10 meter. Hutongs are different from main streets and small streets. It is the isolation zone between houses and rows of houses connected by yards, so you will see many such scenes in Beijing: although there is only a wall between the two yards, you have to make a big circle from the main entrance of one yard to the main entrance of the other.