Beijing needs to be a modern city. But we think tradition and modernization can exist together. For most Beijingers, debates to save hutong seem an exercise in luxury for foreigners, a few romantics, and intellectuals. A hutong complex behind the Forbidden City holds shops and homes. Cab drivers shrink at entering the twisting uncharted alleys, which often dead-end abruptly.
Many dwellings have no power, heat, or water.
You only need to watch an elderly grandmother walking across thick ice at 5 a.m. to go to the public toilet to be dispelled of this idea. Dave Jacobson, Yang's husband, agrees. We like old things. But it's a little late to be up in arms about what is happening here. Conditions in the hutong are very poor.