胡同 (hú tòng): hutong, alley

Grandpa says he grew up in a small hutong in Beijing, and every day after school he would play ball and hide-and-seek with the neighbor kids in the alley.

Tourists enjoy riding bicycles through those ancient hutongs to experience the atmosphere of old Beijing life.

This hutong is too narrow; cars can't get in at all, so we had to walk in to find that small noodle shop.

The walls on both sides of the hutong are painted with many folk paintings of old Beijing, attracting quite a few photography enthusiasts to take pictures.

With urban redevelopment, many old hutongs have been demolished, and the residents who lived there have moved into high-rises, but the close neighborly relationships are hard to find again.