Rickshaw ride through the Hutongs of Beijing

Highlights:

• Discover real Beijing
• Experience a rickshaw ride
• Visit a local family

Discover the real Beijing with this excellent Beijing hutong tour, which takes you on a rickshaw ride through the streets of Beijing before exploring the city’s famous hutongs on foot. This wonderful sightseeing tour can be booked as an extra optional excursion during your time in Beijing on one of our escorted tours of China.

If you’re unfamiliar with hutongs, they are the narrow lanes and alleys that make up traditional residential neighbourhoods throughout Beijing. Many hutongs are centuries old, and several feature beautiful gardens, rockeries and ruins, as well as single-storey dwellings, all interconnected with each other, known as Siheyuan, which surround lovely courtyards. They’re therefore a joy to explore and a Beijing hutong tour is a must during your time in the city. Several Beijing residents still live in the hutongs, so a hutong tour can give visitors a real insight into everyday life for ordinary residents in Beijing.

Your hutong rickshaw tour through Beijing starts with a 20-minute rickshaw ride using this fascinating method of transport, where manpower alone can pull along a passenger cart often seating two passengers. Before cars and buses became more popular, rickshaws were a highly common mode of transport in Beijing, and perfect for navigating the narrow lanes of the hutongs.

You’ll be navigated around the maze of lanes and alleyways that make up some of the most beautiful hutongs in Beijing. The Second Ring Road surrounds the largest hutong area in Beijing, and features the Nanluoguxiang, the most famous hutong in the city, as well as the best-preserved. It is around this area of hutongs you’ll travel through by rickshaw, where you can admire the folk architecture, red lanterns hanging from the eaves and impressive entrances to the buildings.

After your memorable ride through some of Beijing’s lively and characterful hutongs by rickshaw, the tour also offers the opportunity to explore some more of the hutongs on foot. Simply just wandering along the lanes can be one of the best ways to see the hutongs – not only can you go at your own pace, but you can also take a closer look at all of the intricacies of the hutongs and the elements that have gone into building them. As you walk, your guide will also offer up gems of information on the hutongs and their fascinating history. Another perk of also exploring on foot is that this tour also offers you access into one of the many houses that line the hutongs. See how the residents of Beijing live in these traditional dwellings, constructed according to Feng Shui principles, and admire the beautiful courtyards that the houses are centred around.

What's included

• Return transfers with driver and guide