Jia Jia Hutong's vanishing assembly halls

Jia Jia Hutong in Xicheng district is one of the many devastated hutong scattered in the region. The hutong was originally named after a renowned family called Jia who inhabited the area back in the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234). Today the lane is notable not just for its old name, but for its abundance of assembly halls that were established and inhabited by people who mostly came to Beijing to take the Keju exam (the Imperial civil service examination) in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1364-1911). It is also said that the bigwigs of the late Qing Dynasty such as Lin Zexu (1785-1850) and Zeng Guofan (1811-1872) all lived here for a while. Although it is not a surprise to find old assembly halls in the southern city region, Jia Jia Hutong is one of the most representative for its congregation of at least nine assembly halls at one side of the lane. Despite of its predominance of cultural elements, the lane has not been valued by authorities. Walking on today's Jia Jia Hutong is like strolling down a battlefield, with broken walls and scattered bricks in tatters. To many residents, the consistent demolition that lasted for years made the place a hell. The east side of the lane has mostly been razed to the ground and replaced by a massive construction site. Knocking on No. 12, the old Fujian Longyan assembly hall, I was surprised to find residents still dwelling among the debris of the demolition. "I have lived here since the 1960s when there were steles representing the hall's original identity," said 70-year-old Mr Liu. He said that when a family moved out from their houses, the demolition workers would break the roof and overturn walls so that the houses may not be reoccupied. "This is how the dangerous, tottering houses came to exist," he said. "These broken walls allow thieves to sneak in, which endangers our property and safety." Pu Yang assembly hall at No.35 was considered the former residence of the governor and imperial envoy Lin Zexu, according to his diary in the 1810s. Lin once led a resistance against the spread of opium that coming from the West. Yet the courtyard walls are mostly torn down and temporarily replaced by iron sheet for construction use. The door is tightly locked. But peeking from the crack, the newly washed cloth on the hangers implies that the place is still inhabited. Along the way, I came across at least eight assembly halls scattered between No. 12 in the north and No. 66 in the south. Most of them are just tottering courtyards with broken walls. Some have only an iron door for its front door but with broken courtyard walls you could walk through easily. At No. 60, the former Hubei assembly hall, I met 75-year-old Hu who has stayed here long before 1949. There is a big family of three generations all living under one roof at the front house of this siheyuan. The young generations have no clue about the history of the house. Lu said that he did see the plaque of Hubei province assembly hall hung at the main hall in this two-courtyard residence. Normally in an assembly hall, there are steles to be found that could draw back to the establishing period of the house. Hu said that there used to be two steles in the backyard of No. 60, which listed the names of the subscribers and the amount of money each subscribed for the establishing of the hall. "The people from the State Bureau of Cultural Relics came here for checking the cultural properties for times," he said. "Now the backyard is mostly torn down and the steles were taken away by the housing management bureau for other uses."