Will the drive to ‘beautify’ Beijing's historic areas leave older residents behind?

For longtime residents of the Chinese city's hutong neighbourhoods, a housing renovation project mean tough choices over whether to stay or leave

On sunny afternoons, Yang takes his wheelchair-bound 90-year-old mother out along the Yu River, a canal near their home in Beijing's historic Gulou neighbourhood. In the autumn, willow trees sweep their branches in the water, and the place gives the impression of a lazy, golden city from the last imperial days.

Gulou, often called the heart of old Beijing, is one of the only areas left that still have the city's ancient winding alleyways, or hutongs. Yang and his mother live in Yu'er hutong, which lies just off the well-known and tourist-packed Nanluogu Xiang pedestrian street and is a short stroll from the ancient Drum and Bell Towers once used to tell the time across the city.