Behind the glass towers and ring roads, the older Beijing still lives in its hutongs. These narrow alleyways, lined with single-storey courtyard houses, made up most of the city until the 1990s and survive today in pockets across the central districts. The most accessible cluster is around Nanluoguxiang, north of the Forbidden City. Yes, it has become commercial, but a single turn off the main lane drops you into quiet residential alleys where locals are still hanging laundry, playing mahjong on the doorstep, and walking pet birds in cages. The hutongs around the Bell Tower and Houhai Lake are quieter still. A rickshaw tour is the lazy option; renting a bicycle for the day is far better. Look out for the carved doorway gates — the number of beams above the door used to indicate the rank of the family inside. The hutongs are also where you find the city’s best small bars, courtyard cafés, and the kind of dumpling shop that has been run by the same family for three generations.