Beijing's courtyards are the most representative dwellings in North China. As traditional civilian residences in Beijing, they first appeared during the Yuan Dynasty (1271 -1368). The existing courtyards, however, were mostly built during the Qing Dynasty (1644 -1911) and the years before the 1930. In Chinese the courtyards are called Si He Yuan. Si refers to the four sides of the yard while Si He Yuan is a courtyard with rooms or walls in the four sides.

　　Architecturally speaking, the rooms and yards in the courtyard are arranged symmetrically along a south-north axis in accordance with feudal and patriarchal ethics. Siheyuan is the general term: They can be dividedsintosthe big ones, the small ones and the ones with rooms only on three sides. Except the main gate that leads to the outside, the courtyard usually has no windows; if there is a window, it is usually a small one on the southern wall high above the ground to let in light for the south room. Therefore, when the main gate is shut, the courtyard becomes a closed little world. Seldomshavingscontacts with their neighbors, the family members live a peaceful and isolated life.

　　The courtyards, people may say, are tranquil cosy nests the Beijingers found for themselves in the upheaval of history and times of social turmoil. Generation after generation, Beijing residents spent their long years in these countless courtyards, big or small.

　　Today, with the progress of the time, tremendous changes have taken place in the ancient capital. Beijing has taken on an entirely new look: most of the hutongs have become broad and paved roads, tall buildings line both sides of the streets, and the time-honoured courtyards are getting fewer and fewer and becomingmore and more dilapidated and unlivable. Those still living in the courtyards long for movingsintoshigh apartment buildings. But when people stand in front of the forests of high-rise buildings, they begin miss the old courtyards that are so typical to Beijing. To keep and show the features of Old Beijing and the temperaments and interests of the Beijing people, some of the small hutongs and courtyards have been kept when the Municipal Government of Beijing made its city planning. A plaque bearing the word relics under the protection of local Government has been pinned to these courtyards that survived the large-scale city renovation.

　　Memories of my courtyard

　　Every time when I went to southern Beijing, I would always make a round trip on my bicycle in a small hutong called Laoqianggen because one courtyard on the north side of the western end of this hutong revived my memories of my childhood and teenage life.That was once my family lived there until I was fifteen years old.

　　My ancestors who were very poor used to live in a small mountain valley in East China's Fujian Province that situates at the south-eastern coast of China. With diligent and hard study, my great grandfather became a famous doctor and was called in to serve in the imperial court. He migrated to Beijing with his family and settled in this quite imposing courtyard.

　　Facing south like most of the courtyards, it had its main gate opened at the southeastern corner, with an auspicious meaning of purple air comes from the East? The gate tower, with upward bending eaves looked quite magnificent. It was called the gate tower only because it was a little bit higher than the south rooms. On each side of the gate on the doorstep stood a round stone drum carved with a small door-keeping animal said to be one of the nine sons of the Dragon. The doors were always bolted from inside with a big wooden bolt.

　　When we returned home after school, we had to vigorously knock the big iron ring on the door and waited for somebody inside to open the doors for us. Later on, doorbell was installed which brought lot of convenience. Stepping over a 30cm-odd high threshold, you entered the gateway. It had walls on both sides and a roof, with the north side open to the outer court. When the doors were closed, the inside was completely cut off from the outside. When the doors were open, light came in from both inside and outside as in a cave. It had a space of a south room.

　　A door on the western wall led to first room on the south. This room was called the gate-room, used to be taken by the doorkeeper. Facing straight to the gateway was the south wall of the east-wing. Turning west from here you were in front of the south rooms. Except the gate-room, the south rooms opened to the north. Dark and wet, they were the worst rooms in the courtyard and therefore they were not for people to live in but for storing miscellaneous articles.

　　The east and west wings were linked with a wall about a man's height. A small door opened in the middle of the wall and there was a carved wooden screen behind the door. They separated the south rooms from the main yard, and this is the style of typical house with two yards in architecture.

　　The narrow corridor-like courtyard in front of the south rooms was the outer yard and inside the small door was the inner yard. The inner yard was almost square in shape and there was a big and tall locust tree in front of the east and west wings close to the low wall, stopping sunlight in the summer to give cool shade for the courtyard.

　　Built on a base four steps high, the north rooms were the highest. The east and west wings were built on bases one step lower. The three wings were connected with a corridor. As the center of the courtyard, the north wing has three big rooms. The central one was called the hall. On its north wall were hung a painting and a calligraphic couplet. Against the wall lay a long table made of hard wood with a vase and incense burner on it and the ancestors' memorial tablet in the middle.

　　In front of the long table was a square table, and on each side of this table was a hardwood armchair. On festival occasions, food and wine were placed on the table to offer for the ancestors, and the most senior persons of the family would sit in chairs to accept greetings from the juniors. These rituals were abolished later on but the family still conducted the main affairs in the hall. I still remember that when my grandmother and great grandmother passed away, it served as the mourning hall.

　　On the east and west walls of the hall, there were doors leading to the other two rooms that were the bedrooms. With a corridor outside of the rooms and high and big windows, they were bright and warm in winter while cool in summer. Being the best rooms in the courtyard, they were the bedrooms of the elders.

　　When I was very young my great grandfather and grandfather had already passed away and hence the two rooms were taken respectively by my grandmother and very old great grandmother. The younger generations lived in the east and west wings. My parents with my brother and myself occupied the west wing while my aunt and her family lived in the east wing. The wings also had three rooms respectively and it was very convenient to live in, with the middle one as the drawing room and the other two on the sides as bedrooms.

　　The floor was paved with florid ceramic bricks. The widows were big and consequently the rooms enjoyed good light and fresh air. They were cool and comfortable in the summer but cold in the winter. Even a stove could not solve the problem. When we got up in the morning and drew the curtain, we could see ice crystal patterns all over the windowpanes resembling mountains, clouds and many marvelous things. Looking different every day, these ice-paintings often stimulated my curiosity and imaginations.

　　North of the west wing and west of the north rooms was a big room stacked with miscellaneous things. We called it the big Dark Room; because it was very dim inside.

　　North of the Big Dark Room were two small rooms. One was the kitchen with a large cooking stove and running-water, which made it very easy to cook. There was a skylight on the ceiling that served both to let in light and disperse smoke and oil vigour. The other was the toilet that had been renovated with a bathtub and hygienic facilities.

　　In the old days, the public sewage system was inadequate and people living in the courtyards had to solve their own problems. Hence, a big pit was dug under the big square brick in the middle of the yard, and after some while a farmer would be invited in with his soil cart to clean up the pit of the soil for applying to the fields. Then the pit would be re-covered with a lid, filled in with earth and paved with the big square brick: the yard returned to its original sight.

　　One family used to live in a courtyard in the past but later on two or three or even a dozen families squeezed in one courtyard due to the fact that construction of houses lacked behind the increase of city residents. As a result, the courtyard became a compound with several families. After the severe earthquake in Tangshan City in 1976, anti-quake shelters were put up in the courtyards here and there and they gradually became little permanent huts. Consequently, the courtyards began to lost their original features.

　　The end

　　With the advance of the time, the ancient courtyards of Beijing are giving way to the more convenient apartment buildings. In 1960, my family also moved out of the courtyardswheresfour generations had lived andsintosan apartment building. I never lived in a courtyard since then. Forty years have elapsed but my memories often bring me back to the peaceful and cozy courtyard.