An English Teacher in China: Hu Tong (胡同 [hú tòng]) and Pan Jia Yuan (潘家园 [pān jiā yuán])

Welcome to Hu Tong

There are many great places to visit in Beijing and my list of recommendations keeps growing with every excursion. This past weekend I ended up visiting the Hu Tong (胡同 [hú tòng]) and Pan Jia Yuan (潘家园 [pān jiā yuán]) districts in Beijing. Both of these places are great in their own way. I traveled with three Chinese friends (Gideon, Solomon, and Joshua) and our first stop was to the Hu Tong district. The word Hu Tong is actually translated “alleyway” and that’s essentially what this district is! It’s a series of narrow alleyways. Hu Tong is near the city center and it’s an incredibly popular place to visit for Western tourists. There are many small shops set up along the narrow alleyways and vendors are often competing with each other for the best prices. It’s a great place to get traditional style paintings, clothes, and other great gift ideas. Most of the architecture in Hutong has been restored to its former classical glory and it really feels like walking through ancient Chinese buildings. There is even one part consisting of restored French architecture that dates back to 1814.

The four of us had made up our minds this weekend that we wanted to get to the Pan Jia Yuan antique fair as soon as it opens in the morning for the best selection. But the antique fair starts at 6:00 am! So we decided to stay the night in a hostel. We found a popular hostel among western Visitor’s called “Leo’s.” It might sound a little sketchy but a hostel is the common way to stay when visiting another city in China. Let me explain a few of the differences between American hotels and Chinese hostels: Firstly, hostels consist of shared rooms. There are often bunk beds filling as much floor space as is possible in a hostel and their tiny 15’x15’ rooms are often the sleeping quarters for at least six people. Secondly, hostels use a shared bathroom. There are showers, toilets, and the lot, but it’s a public space for all the rooms on a given floor. Thirdly, hostels are cheap. It only cost me $7 to stay one night. Forth, you’re not always guaranteed a good night’s sleep. I’ve stayed in quite a few hostels in China and some are better than others. Leo’s is not a place I would recommend. Leo’s hostel has a 24-hour bar attached to the front complete with throbbing bass techno music and very loud, and very drunk, westerners. I know Chinese people can be obnoxious when they are drunk but at least I can’t understand what they are saying… most of the time. Westerners on the other hand, well, let’s just say there were very few fountains of insight this evening.

My traveling mates and I decided to hit the sack early, but that did me very little good. They got placed in shared rooms further into the hostel so they had a good night’s sleep. I, on the other hand, got the room on the other side of the wall from the all night DJ and he's blaring speakers. I do remember being woken up at one point at 4:00 am by a very loud rendition of “Happy Birthday.” There were also the two French guys who stumbled into the room at 4:30 am and were yelling at each saying, “Be quite! There are people sleeping.”

Well, I may not have had the most restful night but it matter little. My traveling mates and I got up the next morning at 5:30 am and made our way to Pan Jia Yuan. Beijing is rather pleasant at 5:30 in the morning as there is very little vehicular and pedestrian traffic. That quickly changes as 6 rolls around and the day laborers start making their way to work. We were already in Pan Jia Yuan at that time and making our way through the market.

Pan Jia Yuan is essentially a giant flea market. It is located in southeast Beijing, near the Pan Jia Yuan Bridge. It’s a place full of vendors with their stalls of goods selling everything from paintings to knickknacks to antiques and even wooden carved wardrobes. It’s a place full of everything and anything. Most all of the goods are used but there are plenty of craftsmen making new and beautiful arts for purchase. There are over 4,000 shops in the market and nearly 10,000 dealers.

My companions and I went there for one reason: used books! Pan Jia Yuan has a solid acre of book vendors selling a host of used books. Most of the books are in Chinese but it’s possible to find a cluster of English, Spanish, French, Russian, and even a few Hebrew books scattered among the mess. Gideon and I usually clean them out of all the English books we can find. I go for the novels while he goes for the marketing management strategy guides.

It’s a rather hodge-podge of possibilities when looking for English books. Most vendors can’t tell the difference between the western languages so they’ll push anything that it’s Chinese to a westerner. Often I find myself telling them which language is which. But they care little. They just want you to buy their books. Book buying is also an art in Pan Jia Yuan. It’s about being able to haggle for a good price and being able to walk away when they won't come down. I know it might not sound like much but the book sellers will usually go for 10 Yuan ($1.59) per book. Although, work them hard enough and they’ll usually drop down to 2-5 Yuan ($0.32-$0.80). Yes, we are just talking about pennies here but haggling is all part of the fun.

Each time I leave Pan Jia Yuan I usually have a total of 15 books and it’s always an assortment of odd things. I’ve found everything from C.S. Lewis’s the Chronicles of Narnia to Frank Herbert’s Dune. It’s a grab bag but it’s always fun to find a treasure hidden beneath a pile of Chinese books. It’s a great experience for a book nerd (such as myself) to find a rare old gem of the English literature. It’s sort of like treasure hunting. I had also went there to clean them out of any easy to read English books that I could share with my students. It is hard to find English prints of books in China the school library is sorely lacking of material. I found for my students, Anne of Green Gables, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Wind in the Willows, and a host of other easy reads.

With backpacks full, my three traveling companion and I made our way back to Langfang. Our quest was successful and we had bagged as many treasures as we could find. If you ever find yourself in Beijing then I highly recommend stopping by both Pan Jia Yuan and Hu Tong. It’s worth the trip. However, stay away from Leo’s Hostel if you want a good night’s sleep.