Around these ring-like roads, a number of residential areas have been built. The original purpose was to disperse the dense population of old Beijing. The size of buildings in the new residential areas are six-storied to more than ten-storied. Beijing residents call these highrise residential buildings“towers.”These areas usually have a dozen or more buildings, together with comprehensive commercial services, cultural and living facilities. These newly-built residential areas are totally different from traditional ones. Scattered around the Imperial City, traditional residential areas were divided into 37 fang during the Ming Dynasty and 10 fang during the Qing Dynasty. Fang was rectangular residential sector.divided by lanes. Bureaucrats, aristocrats, landlords and merchants mostly lived in the Interior City while common people lived outside.
>>>>>>back to Beijing: Leaving the Imperial mall and Siheyuan<<<<<
