BIZCHINA / Biz Media Digest
Tourism: Hutong tours
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-08 13:46
"Watch your step. Sit back and off we go," says a cheerful tour leader as
a dozen tricycles carrying two foreign tourists each set out on a tour
into the innermost parts of Beijing - its "hutongs," or alleyways.
A tour into at least 20 alleyways intertwined in the Shichahai area a few
blocks from the Forbidden City has topped the agenda of many
international tourists to Beijing. The trip, lasting up to three hours,
costs 180 yuan (US$22.5) per person. "This is something new. We never saw
anything like this in Europe," said Betto Veenenbos, a retiree from
Holland.
Beijing Hutong Tourist Agency was the first to promote hutong tours in
1994 and is receiving around 180,000 tourists a year. "Business is good.
Sometimes tourists are waiting even before our working hours start at
8am," said a tricycle rider.
"It's more than a sightseeing tour," said the company's vice president
Jing Xueming. "By traveling to the innermost parts of Beijing, the
visitors will hopefully have a glimpse of Beijing's culture and the
locals' life."
However, competition is fierce, he says. "In the Shichahai area alone, 22
travel services are providing hutong tours."
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