People who have lived in the neighborhood of Dongcheng District for a long time must become talkative every time when Dongsi is mentioned. Each of Hutongs and districts is a reminder of beautiful memory in their childhood. If people happen on one of their old neighbors when they pass by there, they would like to go to a restaurant which was once often visited to recall the past together while enjoying the unforgettable flavors in their memory.
This West Pailou which was dismantled in 1956 is a distinct landmark in the memory on Dongsi. People who once saw it are now 70 to 80 years old. The former residence of Hou Baolin - a famous Chinese crosstalk master (1917-1993) - as the dormitory of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the old time is located in DongsiToutiaoHutong which is half of a Hutong though, there once were many celebrities living there, such as Qian Zhongshu and Yang Jiang both of who are masters in literature. Do you knowa well-preserved courtyard in DongsiErtiaoHutong - Where Fu Kang’an, a governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and Premier in the Qing Dynasty hundreds of years ago, Wong Tongsu, the minister of the ministry of revenue in the late Qing Dynasty, and Song Yun, a famous minister in the prime of the Qing Dynasty once lived in? Additionally, the leader of overseas Chinese You Yangzu once lived in the east entrance of this Hutong. Most of the DongsiSantiaoHutong is a historic reservation in which there were four royal families once lived. No. 67 in this Hutong was once the home of the WanyanTongji who was the cousin of Empress Wanrong, wife of the last Emperor of China Pu Yi, and also the best friend of MengXiaodong, a famous Peking Opera artist who lived in No. 26 in the Hutong.
The history of Dongsi is so long that most young people who were born in the 1980s and 1990s rarely know it and just only sense its glory from the old pictures or their parents.
No. 5 in the DongsiSitiaoHutong, established in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, was the residence of Mian Yi who was a distance relative of Emperor Daoguang (1782-1850), next to the former residence of General Zhang Xueliang (1901-2001). It is the only existing mint of the Qing Dynasty, which once made Kangxi Tongbao (a coin cast and circulated in 1662-1722) and Qianlong Tongbao (a coin cast and circulated in 1736-1795). The former residence of Yu Qian, the highest ranking minister who died in the First Opium War in 1840-1842, is located in the DongsiWutiaoHutong. On its west is the former residence of Xu Shichang (1855-1935), president in the early Republic of China. In the DongsiQitiaoHutong, there is a house with total four courtyards from front to back, which was once the residence of Zaican and his son Pu Dao, both of who were the bulwark duke (the sixth highest title of imperial nobility in the Qing Dynasty). After 1949, this house was transformed into a dormitory of the August 1st Film Stadio.
