Last Days of Old Beijing

The ancient alleys, or hutong, of old Beijing have been rapidly disappearing under the city’s relentless redevelopment, along with the surrounding districts and traditional social fabric that once thrived there. Author Michael Meyer made his home in one such district for two years, came to know his neighbors and their disappearing landscape, and wrote The Last Days of Old Beijing. Weaving historical vignettes of Beijing and greater China over a thousand years, Meyer captures the hutong’s deep past as he illuminates its present, bringing the ebb and flow of life on the other side of the planet into shining focus.