Traveling around Beijing, you cannot miss the place called Shichahai, an area where old Beijing living style can be traced back: hutongs of varied sizes and lengths, courtyard of different shapes and designs, lakes of beautiful scenery and great charms, restaurants of numerous flavors and brands, people of traditional Chinese appearances and costumes and so on. More importantly, it is a paradise of pedicabs.

Pedicabs went viral after the collapse of the Qing dynasty and before the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. You don’t have to spend a lot of money and will be transported from one corner of the city to another which you may don’t know. That time was bad because each driver walked or ran to transport their guests from one place to another; and now their rickshaws have been converted into three-wheeled pedicabs, which make their work easier and now this is for fun for tourists visiting the hutongs here.

Jumping onto a pedicab, you can travel to many renowned places such as Prince Gong’s Mansion, Gu Moruo’s Former Residence, Qianha, Houhai and so on. At the same your pedicab driver tell the stories and history which happened around this area. They may shout in loud voices, or they just tell each and every story in detail in hospitable voices. Some of them may speak English with you if you have such a requirement. If you speak Chinese, that’s much better.

Traveling around Shichahai on the pedicab usually takes 200 RMB or so for each person and sometimes you can bargain with the driver, and your bargain may take effect sometimes.