[My Postcrossing #1] 北京胡同及四合院 Hutong and Siheyuan of Beijing

大家知道Postcrossing 嗎？Postcrossing是一個明信片交流網站，它們的口號是“寄張明信片給某國家的人吧！再從某國家的人那收到明信片吧！”你可在Postcrossing隨機抽到一個地址，將明信片寄給他，同時你也將會收到世界其中一個角落寄給你的明信片。現在Postcrossing已經有接近700,000成員了，每天寄出的明信片接近10000張！加入Postcrossing是免費的，只要付出購買明信片的費用和郵費，你就可以用明信片認識世界各地的朋友，同時收到世界不同特色的明信片。
Do You know Postcrossing? Postcrossing is an online project that allows members to send and receive postcard from all over the world. Their slogan is "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!” You may randomly get an address from postcrossing and send him. a postcard. At the same time, you may receive a postcard from anywhere of the world. There is now 700,000 members of postcrossing, with 10000 postcards sending out every day. Postcrossing is free. You just need to buy a postcard and stamp, then you may meet new friends from the world by a postcard and receive different style of postcards from all over the world.

這是我在Postcrossing收到的第一張明信片，呀，應是4張！因為這位北京的朋友把明信片當成信紙寫信給我哈哈。
This is the 1st postcard I received, no, should be 4 postcards. Because my friend in Beijing took the postcards as letter paper haha.

4張明信片有2張是北京胡同的照片，我對胡同最有印象的是馮小剛的電影《老炮兒》，我看著電影中的胡同，很有感覺，很想親自去看一看。照我所知，胡同的意思是狹窄的街道，北京的胡同大多是元朝大都時遺留下來的，經過數百年至今，已成為北京市的本土文化象征。不過聽聞近年北京因地產商的關係，胡同已變得越來越少，還望北京朋友幫忙解答。
The first 2 postcards are the photo of Hutong (胡同) in Beijing. My first impression of Hutong is a Chinese film 《老炮兒》(Mr. Six). It made me want to go and take a look. The meaning of Hutong is narrow street. Most hutongs in Beijing were built during the Yuan dynasty (Empire of Genghis Khan, around 1200-1300 AD). Hutong now is already a local cultural symbol of Beijing. But I heard that due to the development of land property, there are less and less hutong left now. Wish friends in Beijing may give us an answer.

第3張是北京胡同和四合院的插畫。尤記得小時候看紅樓夢的時候，就對賈府大園很感興趣，長大後才知道賈府就是四合院！北京的四合院通常都建在胡同裡，四合院是一個院子四面建有房屋，從四面將庭院合圍在中間，故有四合院的名稱。聽說四合院的格局還含有中國傳統尊卑及陰陽五行的思想，不過這題目就超出我知識範圍了。
The third postcard is Hutong and Siheyuan (四合院). I remember when I read “Dream of the Red Chamber” (紅樓夢), I was very interested in the “Red Champer”, the house where the story happened. When I grow up, I found the “red chamber” is exactly a Siheyuan! Siheyuan is a kind of Courtyard house, in which a courtyard is surrounded by buildings on all four sides and so it’s called Siheyuan (In Chinese Siheyuan means a courtyard surrounded by four buildings). It is heard that the pattern of Siheyuan contains the theory of Wu Xing (五行, the five elements in Chinese) and the idea of respecting the elders. The topic is out of my knowledge and I wish expect may tell me some.

現在四合院同樣成為了北京的傳統文化的標志，但好像也是逐漸消失中，看來歷史文物古蹟，不論在哪個城市，都在慢慢的消去。
Siheyuan now is already the icon of Beijing traditional culture. And it is also vanishing, just like Hutong. Seems every city is the same, not caring about the historical buildings.

最後這一張是開在胡同裡的一家小店，這幾張明信片都是在這條街的小店買的，如果你們覺得這幾張明信片很漂亮，下次到北京都可到這條街啊！
The last postcard is a small boutique opened at a Hutong. The postcards were bought from the shop. I recommend you to take a look if you like it!

謝謝你能抽空閱讀這篇文章，我平日喜歡分享香港的故事，希望大家多多支持，我會繼續努力！

Thanks for spending your time to read my articles. I like to share stories of Hong Kong. I wish you may support me and I will keep going!

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