At first glance, the hutongs in Beijing are all gray walls and tiles, which look the same. Actually, it is not. As long as you are willing to work hard, go to several hutongs and chat with the old residents there for a while, you will find that every hutong has a leader and a story.
The quadrangle in Beijing is a kind of quadrangle. The so-called courtyard is a courtyard with houses on all sides and four houses in the middle. This is the yard. One household and one house, each house has several courtyards. The courtyard runs through the central axis, the north room is the main room, the houses in the east and west directions are wing rooms, and the south gate opens to the north, so it is called inverted seat. When a family is rich or has a large population, they can build front and back yards.
In the early years of the Republic of China, with the opening of the Forbidden City, pedestrians were allowed to cross Chang 'an Avenue. In this way, Beijing has an east-west parallel at right angles to the central axis running through the north and south. The latitude and longitude intersect in front of Tiananmen Square, forming a big cross coordinate, and the streets and alleys develop outward with this as the center. The opening and expansion of several new trunk roads have promoted the development of hutong. By the 1940s, there were more than 3,200 hutongs in Beijing.
The design and construction of Beijing quadrangles are relatively easy, and the materials used are very simple, without steel bars and cement; Blue bricks and gray tiles, brick-wood combination, mixed building, of course, wood structure is the main standard structure, light weight, in case of earthquake, it can rarely be pushed down.
The surrounding area of Beijing mainly adopts quadrangles, with the central axis as symmetry. The gate is located in the southeast of due south, and the gate is not opposite to the main house.
The gate of Beijing quadrangle opens in the southeast. This is based on the theory of geomantic omen, and it is only done around Beijing, but not in other places.