Also from the article: "while life in the hutongs might sound exciting to some hipsters in town, most of the residents are facing living conditions which resemble those of slums in less developed countries."
I remember only 20 years ago and all of Beijing seemed to be Hutong... with the ubiquitous locked gates that seemed a fire hazard to me. It's no wonder that from being so common some have become much nicer and some much less so, while most have fallen to the wrecking ball.
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/212...
Also in San Francisco
I find posts like yours are misguided and demonstrate total ignorance regarding human suffering.
You should update the wikipedia page if it's been repealed everywhere, the current page just says that small cities have had restrictions abolished but large cities are still under tight control.
It's surprising and interesting to learn that China has total internal freedom of movement, something that the USSR and similar countries never embraced.
1) It's impossible for them to realize that China is a much better place than what western media depicts. It's even better than most western countries nowadays.
2) It's for China's benefits to keep them in thinking China still what China was 100 years ago.
Don't wake up them, let them live in their dreams.
Just use the bathroom rubric when comparing slums...
As one grew up in Beijing and lived for 26 years, I can definitely say that comparing Hutong to Indian slum is really really ignorant. You can ask anyone in Beijing, they will tell you that many people live in Hutong is one group of the richest people in Beijing. Nearly all people live in Hutong are Beijing natives, and their houses inside the hutong are called "siheyuan" which are among the most expensive real estate in beijing. Most "siheyuan", houses inside the hutong, are build decades ago and owned by local natives for long time, and its value increases much fast than other real estates as nearly all located in the center of beijing. I just check on an agency site, the cheapest house are more than 5 million us dollar, and many are more than 10 million us dollar. only the most successful people in Beijing will buy those houses. (if you know Chinese, you can check on this site or by google translate: http://esf.fang.com/house/i34-kw%cb%c4%ba%cf%d4%ba/)
if you have ever been to, you can have a visit and talk to people in hutong, you will know how wealthy and happy like they are.
and there are also many other statements in you text are totally wrong and with groundless prejudice. No employer will threat to report to police because of work’s identity, you may again ridiculously think beijing as America. Beijing is china’s capital, more than third people there are not locals, they also don’t need any documents to go to and stay in their capital. And nowadays, most rich people in beijing are not locals, they come from all over the china.