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Ping'an Avenue is so wide and straight that it looks like an airport runway stretching along downtown Beijing. To built it, the city had to remove a large number of alleys traditionally called hutongs, from the map.

Only 50 years ago, Beijing had about 3,200 hutongs, but today there are only 990. In Xicheng District along, from the 1960s to the 1990s more than 260 hutongs were cleared.

Some older citizens worry that without these hutongs can Beijing still be called Beijing?

In their eyes, the disappearance of hutongs means the disappearance of a period of history, a cordial lifestyle, and even the disappearance of Beijing itself.

They even hold that Beijing is represented by two sections: the imperial gardens represented by the Forbidden City and the hutongs. It is the gray walls and tiles of the siheyyuan (couryard dwellings) that make the Forbidden City look splendid in gree and gold, and it is the flat buildings in the imposing. The two bring out the best in each other, but the courtyard dwellings in the hutongs are the more typical of the two.

As Shu Yi, the deputy curator of the China Contemporary Literature Museum, said, if most of the courtyard dwellings and hutongs in Beijing are replaced by high-rise buildings, where can people find traces of Beijing's history as a 3,000-year-old city and a 1,000-year old capital? At the most, it can only be another version of Hong Kong, Tokyo or New York.

Indeed, from the names of now-disappeared hutongs one can discover how Beijingers, in the course of centuries, advanced from vulgarity to refinement. For instance, there was a hutong called" Lishi," meaning " donkey market." Another example is Shikeliang Hutong, which means " bright all the time." But the name evolved from " shikelang," which means " dung beetle."

Every era has left its mark on the names of hutongs. During the " cultural revolution" ( 1966-76), the adjective Hong (red) was added to the names of many hutongs. As a result, the number of hutongs with the character " hong" increased to more than 100. Among them, 27 hutongs were named " Hongri" Road, which means "red sun". Even those names without "hong" also had the characteristics of the times. For example, Babaolou Hutong near Jianguomen was renamed " Miezi" Hutong, which means " eliminate the bourgeoisie"; and Nanxiawazi (South Depression) Hutong was renamed " Xui Maozhu" ( Study Mao's Works) Hutong.

In Beijing's numerous hutongs are scattered the residences of famous personages, and these places are repositories. When urban construction threatens the existence of these hutongs, some Beijingers become worried. Mr Shu Yi appealed, " Please preserve the few hutongs that are left."

Having already lost their city wall, Beijingers feel that they cannot afford to lose the hutongs and courtyard dwellings that are their pride as well. But the headache for the municipal authorities is how to preserve the shabby but valuable hutongs while trying to build a cosmopolitan metropolis?

Five years age, Xu Yong rescued a hutong unexpectedly. A construction company wanted to terar it down to make room for a high-rise building, but the hutong had been included in the itinerary of a hutong tour by his company- the Bejiing Hutong Culture Development Co.Ltd. Taking into consideration the preservation of the ancient capital and its tourism development, the planning department finally changed the original plan and preserved the hutongs. Foreign tourists who have toured the hutongs all claim that without visiting Beijing's hutongs, one cannot say he or she has seen the real Beijing.

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