Aug 5, 2026 · 53 min · 13 segments
**Ep 6. The Soul of Beijing: An Uncut Walk Through the Hutongs (with Fred / Li Yan)** Welcome back to Sid’s Campfire. This episode comes straight from the archives. Following a temporary visa…
is? Hutong is the local term for narrow alleyways with houses on both sides.
As you can see, you know, we have houses on both sides of the street.
The history of Hutong actually can be traced back to 13th century because the grandson of Kublai Khan, the great Mongolian empire.
yeah.
But Kublai Khan, shall we maybe keep walking this way? What do you want to do? Maybe more hustling, bustling? No,
at that time even before he became the emperor or you know the king of the whole empire while he was still like struggling with his younger brother I might just jump in the shade so the camera's not strobing let's switch maybe oh yeah so there was this Chinese like Han Chinese scholar who was a Taoist and also a monk like a Buddhist monk he was recommended to like eat and feast with Koblai Khan.
So by the end of the dinner, Koblai was like halfway drunken and he stood up and he walked to that man and said, how do I conquer the world on horseback? And the man told him that you can defeat your enemies while riding horses.
But there is no way you can govern and manage all the citizens from the horseback.
When you are on the horseback, you need to get off the horse.
You need to find like effective ways and hire those trustworthy Han officials to help you manage the country.
I think that's when they started building Beijing as the grand capital of the Yuan Dynasty.
So that's when they designed all those little narrow alleyways.
Like the broad street, mostly run from east to west, intersected with those little alleyways and narrow street, like from north to south.
So Hutong, some say it was the Mongolian word for water well, because where there's water, there's life.
Before the Mongolian, those like tribal people, they settled down to create their dwellings.
They need to dig a water well in the middle of the neighborhood, and they would name this whole neighborhood after the water well.
But I don't think Hutong is the name Hutong in Mongolian, you know, this pronunciation means water well.
I think the origin of Hutong, this name literally, came from the Ming Dynasty, as we can find some documents back then.
is? Hutong is the local term for narrow alleyways with houses on both sides.
As you can see, you know, we have houses on both sides of the street.
The history of Hutong actually can be traced back to 13th century because the grandson of Kublai Khan, the great Mongolian empire.
yeah.
But Kublai Khan, shall we maybe keep walking this way? What do you want to do? Maybe more hustling, bustling? No,
at that time even before he became the emperor or you know the king of the whole empire while he was still like struggling with his younger brother I might just jump in the shade so the camera's not strobing let's switch maybe oh yeah so there was this Chinese like Han Chinese scholar who was a Taoist and also a monk like a Buddhist monk he was recommended to like eat and feast with Koblai Khan.
So by the end of the dinner, Koblai was like halfway drunken and he stood up and he walked to that man and said, how do I conquer the world on horseback? And the man told him that you can defeat your enemies while riding horses.
But there is no way you can govern and manage all the citizens from the horseback.
When you are on the horseback, you need to get off the horse.
You need to find like effective ways and hire those trustworthy Han officials to help you manage the country.
I think that's when they started building Beijing as the grand capital of the Yuan Dynasty.
So that's when they designed all those little narrow alleyways.
Like the broad street, mostly run from east to west, intersected with those little alleyways and narrow street, like from north to south.
So Hutong, some say it was the Mongolian word for water well, because where there's water, there's life.
Before the Mongolian, those like tribal people, they settled down to create their dwellings.
They need to dig a water well in the middle of the neighborhood, and they would name this whole neighborhood after the water well.
But I don't think Hutong is the name Hutong in Mongolian, you know, this pronunciation means water well.
I think the origin of Hutong, this name literally, came from the Ming Dynasty, as we can find some documents back then.
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