Shijia Hutong Museum is located at No. 24 Shijia Hutong in Dongcheng District, and serves as a window and stage to exhibit and spread Hutong culture forged by Dongcheng District.
How many stories are hidden in this hutong? As soon as you enter No. 24, you will notice that this newly-built hutong museum doesn’t look new: the floor is uneven and its decoration resembles that during the Republic of China. Indeed, the floor is newly-paved but isn’t paved with new flat bricks. Instead, they are old bricks.
Taking a stroll inside the museum, you will find many such designs. The entire museum covers an area of over 1,000 square meters, featuring eight exhibition halls and one multi-functional hall, where all kinds of exhibits reintroduce the real life of the hutong, including the outlay of the Beijing family during the 1970s and 1980s, the semiconductor radio, the black and white TV and others. All these old things were collected from Beijing’s common residents. They look like witnesses of the past century and have recorded the changes of Shijia Hutong.
Entering the Time Memory Hall, you will see a small workroom resembling a recording studio which has recorded the original appearance of the hutong. This room is equipped with professional audio devices. If you touch the touch screen, you will hear different kinds of "Hutong Voices". These voices are divided into three phases, including before the 1950s, 1950s to 1960s and 1970s to 1980s. They cover 70 kinds of voices categorized by spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Entering the History Exhibition Hall, lying in the center of the room is a 7 to 8-meter-long and 2 to 3-meter-wide Shijia Hutong sandbox. The hutong houses over 130 houses row upon row, where many famous people once lived.
From the narrow point of view, Shijia Hutong is the No. 24 house. But broadly speaking, it represents the whole hutong. What the museum exhibits is but an index of it, and the more wonderful content serves to invite the community residents to enter the hutong and experience its unique feel and elegance.
Address: No. 24 Shijia Hutong, Chaoyangmen Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing 北京市东城区朝阳门街道史家胡同24号
Opening hours: 9:30 – 12:00; 2:00 – 4:30 (Tuesday through Sunday)
