Local Culture: Beijing Roast Duck Beijing's Hutongs and Quadrangular Courtyard
Beijing Opera
Beijing Roast Duck
Beijing Roast Duck is reputed to be the most delicious food Beijing offers. Eating Beijing Roast Duck is regarded as one of the two things tourists must do while in Beijing . The other one is climbing the Great Wall.
The duck is served in slices. The chef will slice the whole duck into 100 or 120 slices, with an equal portion of skin and meat in four or five minutes, after showing you the whole duck. The duck is usually accompanied with special pancakes, hollowed sesame bun, green onions and sweet sauce. There are two famous roast duck restaurants with a history of over one hundred years, representing two different schools of roast duck. One is Bianyifang Roast Duck Restaurant; the other is Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant.
Beijing's Hutongs and Quadrangular Courtyard
Hutongs , of which most were built at Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (almost 800 years ago), are typical ancient city lanes in Beijing. In order to establish supreme power, the emperors of these dynasties arranged the residential areas according to the etiquette systems of the Zhou Dynasty. So the royal palace -- the Forbidden City, with surrounding hutongs, was in the center of Beijing . 
Regular hutongs are near the palace to the east and west and arranged in order along the streets. Most of the residents living in these types of hutong were imperial kinsmen and nobles. Most simple and rough hutongs are located far to the north and south of the palace. The residents were merchants and other ordinary people.
Quadrangles are the main buildings in the hutongs . They are building complex formed by four houses around a quadrangular courtyard. The size and design of quadrangles can signify the social status of the residents. The big ones, with roof beams and pillars carved and painted magnificently, and a front yard and back yard, lived high- ranking officials and rich merchants. However, the simple ones with small gates and low houses were ordinary people's quadrangles. Hutongs are actually passageways formed by many closely arranged quadrangles of different sizes.
The longest hutong: 6.5 km long
The shortest hutong: 25.23 m long
The widest hutong: 32.18 m wide
The narrowest hutong: 44 cm wide
The most zigzagging hutong has nineteen winds.
Beijing Opera
As the most representative Chinese local opera, Beijing Opera has approximate two hundred years' history. It is one of the four national treasures in China. Three others are Chinese painting, Chinese martial art and Chinese calligraphy. In early times, Beijing Opera was extensively popular in Anhui, Hubei Province, in south China, and HeiLongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning Province, in northeast China. Until the beginning of 20th century, the opera was spread to Fujian, Guangdong Province in the south of China, Zhejiang Province in the east and Yunnan Province in the west.
Beijing Opera is a fairly typical performance, which combines the artistic essences of dance, song, drama, pantomime, martial art and poem, with featured rhythmic actions, simple and accurate music, imaginative plot and personalized characters. There are more than one thousand lists of traditional plays, of which three to four hundreds are frequently put on. Most stories of Beijing Opera are about the political and military conflict, sourced from historical stories or novels.
The characters of Beijing Opera can be divided into four categories. They are Sheng, Dan, Jing, Chou.
Sheng refers to male characters, from the aged to the child, including emperors, government officers, literates and generals; the rich and the poor, and so on.
Dan refers to female characters, also from the aged to the young, such as queens, princesses, madams, generals, peddlers and peasants.
Jing are also male characters. The key difference from Sheng is the facial adornment. Actors need to paint the colorful makeup, according to the specific role they take, on their face before getting on the stage.
Chou means "sill" or "ugly" in Chinese. Similar as Jing, facial makeup is also necessary for such roles, yet with different painting, which may arouse audience's laughter.
In 1919, Beijing Opera was put on in Japan by the opera troupe of Mei Lanfang, the famous Beijing opera artist. It was for the first time that Beijing Opera was showed to the overseas audience. In 1930, Mr. Mei's troupe performed the opera in America and made great success. Four years later, he was invited to Europe, and the performance in the Soviet Union gained another highly praise. Since then, Beijing opera is known all over the world.
Therefore, if you come to Beijing for a visit, please do not miss the chance to enjoy Beijing Opera. You can watch the play in Chang'an Theater on Chang'an Avenue. It was built initially in 1937, with profound and modern style. You can see the pictures and introductions of opera artists home and abroad, hanging in the lobby and cloister.
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