Courtyards are folk houses usually built inside a hutong and have experienced hundreds of years of history in China. They are usually called ‘Siheyuan’ in Chinese. ‘Si’ means 'Four', which refers to the four sides: east, west, north and south. ‘He’ refers to the surrounding, meaning the four sides circle into a square. ‘Yuan’ is a yard. Due to its special layout, it is compared to a box with a garden in the center. There is only one gate leading to a hutong.

Most of the existing ones are relics of the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) Dynasties. They are the shadow of Old China. The ancient furniture, fish pond, wooden doors and windows, and cane chairs remind you of their flourishing past. Those flashed bricks, Chinese eaves and cornices, fine brick designs, and wood carvings, reveal a strong classical tone of the ancient city.

Hidden in the forest of armored concrete, courtyards present an aching beauty of decadence, waiting eagerly for you to explore its past. You cannot fully understand Beijing until you visit these houses and experience that way of living yourself.

Owners often grow flowers and trees in the garden to decorate their house. Generally speaking, they love planting date trees, locust trees and cloves. Pomegranate trees are also their favorite because they have many seeds. In Chinese, the pronunciations of ‘seed’ and ‘son’ are the same, and seniors believe that the more sons, the more blessings. This is the reason why we can see many pomegranate trees in these courtyards. Living in this elegant and harmonious environment, they will live a peaceful and blissful life!

These hutongs and courtyards reflect the ritualistic and traditional ideas of Beijing and contain rich cultural connotations. They are the archetypes of the royal architecture.

Source: travelchinaguide.com