'Hutongs' old Beijing

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Worldwide | Thursday, August 12, 2010 | 5 photos

My name is Marty and i am a photography student. I love making images, particularly groups of images that give the viewer an experience into another pocket of society and a feeling for other peoples livelihoods. My main interests are Documentary, Street & Travel Photography. Before picking up my studies earlier this year i worked in the travel industry where i was lucky enough to travel throughout Asia. My photo submission is of one such trip where i travelled to China. These photos are of Beijings Hutongs, an area of small streets/alleys which forms a neighbourhood of traditional courtyard terraces & where the people who live here hold onto a largely diminishing piece of significant cultural township. Since the forming of the peoples republic of china, many of the old hutongs of Beijing have been demolished and replaced by large roads and highrises. This is sad story which has much to do with the growing poopulation of the city. On my visit there in 2008, i had a rickshaw ride through the streets to find people doing their shopping, hanging their clothes out to just hanging out in the streets having a game of Mahjjong (the chinese game of solitaire). One of the true joys of travelling is to be a part of something different & my visit to Beijings Hutongs was just that