Beijing's hutongs always make people stop in a hurry; just like the lanes in Shanghai, they can carefully chew on local stories and legends. Beijing has the longest hutong, Dongjiaomin Lane, the most famous hutong, Nanluogu Lane, the hutong with the most turns, Jiuwan Hutong, and the narrowest hutong, Qianshi Hutong. So, which hutong is the shortest in Beijing? Most of the foreign tourists have never heard of this hutong, but it is located in the Dashilar area of Beijing's well-known scenic spot, although it is a hutong, it is called Yili Avenue.
We once introduced that there is a very literary hutong in Beijing - Yangmeizhu Xie Street, this foot street is located at the western end of Yangmeizhu Xie Street, and the road between the north entrance of Tongzi Hutong and the north exit of Cherry Hutong is also a diagonal street. Yiyi Avenue has always been declared to be only more than 30 meters, and later measured down to only 25 meters, which is the shortest hutong in Beijing. If you don't pay attention, you won't notice its existence at all.
If you were looking all the way from the east entrance of Yangmeizhu Xie Street, you might have already arrived at Liulichang East Street, only to find that you had just walked through a foot of street in complete disregard.
According to legend, Yiyi Avenue was built in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties; among all the historical books that mention YiyiJie, the earliest is the "Yandu Cong kao" compiled by Chen Zongfan, a jinshi in the late Qing Dynasty, in 1931. It reads, "From Yangmeizhu Diagonal Street to the west of one foot street, and west of the Liuli Factory." "Therefore, the clearly documented history of One Foot Avenue has been at least 90 years, and it is likely that it will be more than 90 years."
Later, with the development and construction of the city, when Beijing rectified the names of streets and alleys in 1965, the name of "One Foot Street" was withdrawn and merged, becoming a section of Yangmeizhu Diagonal Street. Therefore, the historical place name of Yiyi Avenue was once forgotten and gradually blurred in the history of the evolution of place names in Beijing. By 2012, Yangmeizhu Xie Street, as a historical and cultural district, underwent a plan to renovate the old city. In 2015, the name Yiyi Avenue was "reborn", although it was still impossible to search on the map navigation; but the four-character bronze landmark on the ground made it return to everyone's vision again.
The setting of the landmark of "One Foot Street" has awakened everyone's memory and attention to the old place names, and also provided guidance for tourists who love to explore the ancients in the city. According to locals, when the landmark was first set up, there was an endless stream of people who came to take photos and punch cards, and the local even held a "long jump competition in the shortest alley" next to the landmark.
According to historical records, in the 1930s, Yiyi Avenue was originally a concentrated area of the engraving industry, and there were 6 shops on the road, 3 in the north were engraving shops, and 3 in the south were taverns, blacksmith shops and barber shops. Including the Yangmeizhu Xie Street and Liulichang East Street, which are connected at both ends, they are all concentrated in the engraving industry and the publishing industry. With the passage of time, the old appearance of one foot street has disappeared without a trace. Today, the short one-foot street has been replaced by other types of shops.
The Dashilar area, where Yiyi Avenue is located, still retains the hutong texture of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties; in the past, it was also called "the teaching material of Chinese urban history" by Academician Wu Liangyong. In the crisscrossing alleys, there are both historical relics that can be seen everywhere and the smell of lively and vivid fireworks. The alley is short, but the story is long.