胡同

choi

Sean Silbert, Beijing's Old Backstreets Are Right up Too Many Tourists' Alley. Dec 28, 2014.
www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg ... 20141228-story.html

Quote:

“The city had about 11 million people in 1990; it has more than 21 million today. By some estimates, the city had 3,200 hutongs in 1945, but only 700 to 800 remain. Many of those, however, are no longer the same.

“The squat wooden houses that used to surround the Drum and Bell Towers — many without toilets and with freezing interiors during the winter — were viewed by some as antiquated. And the 9-foot-wide alleys were too small for firetrucks and ambulances to enter.

Note:
(a)
(i) be up your street: "UK [informal: also according to Cambridge dictionary] (US be up your alley)  to be the type of thing that you are interested in or that you enjoy doing  <Carpentry isn't really up my street. I'd rather pay someone else to do it.>  <I've got a little job for you which is right (= exactly) up your street.>"
dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/british/be-up-your-street
(ii) right up one's alley:
"[A] modifier  Perfect for someone; exactly what someone is best at: Teaching grammar is right up her alley
The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD and Robert L. Chapman, PhD[;] Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.
[B] Also, right down one's alley. In one's specialty, to one's taste, as in Writing press releases is right up her alley, or He loved opera, so this program of arias was right down his alley. These idioms use alley in the sense of ‘one's own province,’ a usage dating from the early 1600s. [First half of 1900s ]  Also see: cup of tea
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary[;] Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company"
dictionary.reference.com/browse/right+up+one%27s+alley

choi

(b) "Almost every morning, Liu Yunjiang prepares a show for strangers at his house in one of Beijing's oldest neighborhoods. He starts by tending to his birds — cockatiels, pigeons and mynas he's taught to cry ‘Hello’ in Mandarin — and then he walks his grubby Pekingese, Momo."
(i) myna  八哥
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myna
(also mynah; native to southern Asia, especially India; ability to reproduce sounds, including human speech, when in captivity; "Myna" is derived from the Hindi language mainā which itself is derived from Sanskrit madanā)
(ii) grubby (adj):
“2a :  DIRTY, GRIMY <grubby hands>
b :  SLOVENLY, SLOPPY"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grubby

(c) "Just down the street from Liu's house, for example, is Nanluogu Xiang 南锣鼓巷, a hutong that's become stuffed with cheap boutiques, chintzy bars and snack shops catering to thousands of tourists a day."
(i) chintzy (adj)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chintzy
(ii) chintz
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chintz

(d) "Gu Huimin, deputy dean 副院长 谷慧敏 of the School of Tourism Management 旅游管理学院 at Beijing International Studies University 北京第二外国语学院"
(e) "Hu Xinyu 胡新宇, who works at the preservation-focused Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center"

Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center  北京文化遗产保护中心
www.bjchp.org
is a NGO,
(f) "Still, in some ways, this was a victory for preservationists. A plan to turn the area into a touristy 'Time Cultural City' 北京时间文化城 was abandoned in 2009 * * * an amusement park"

(g) "This 'tourist-ification' is a major danger to hutong communities, architect Wang Shuo said."
(i) NOT 王朔 (1958- ; 满族; 作家)
(ii) NOT 王澍 WANG Shu (1963- ; 建筑师, 2012年度普利茲克建筑獎得主)
(iii) BUT
(A) 曹欢, 建筑设计师王硕：胡同就像一片森林. 中国日报视频, June 6, 2014.
video.chinadaily.com.cn/2014/0605/3164.shtml
(B) 乡愁式的怀旧保护并不现实. 北京日报, June 26, 2014
bjrb.bjd.com.cn/html/2014-06/26/content_191128.htm
("建筑设计师、胡同文化研究者王硕")