The other side of tourism's golden promise

A pedicab driver guides a tourist to explore Nanluoguxiang.[Photo by Zhang Wei/ China Daily]

Last year, according to Beijing News, the average number of visits to Nanluoguxiang was more than 30,000 on weekdays and 50,000 on weekends, and 100,000 during the national holiday period. Its capacity is just 17,000.

Tourism, often vaunted as an economic godsend, can be a real pain for those who live in the areas that are the supposed beneficiaries, not least because of traffic. In the case of the hutong residents, tourists can mean prying eyes and intruders, and many of the residents have signs on their gates warning that their property is private.

In Nanluoguxiang, An used to be a regular customer of Wenyu cheese store, which sells Beijing-style cheese jelly. But he has to queue in the shop because it has become so popular.

"Even the taste has changed; it is not as delicious as it used to be. The crowds also make it noisier. I wanted to do business there and make it unique, but it's impossible. People are just selling things that are much the same as everywhere else."

In 2010 he and his friends opened a bar in a courtyard there. Just as they were beginning to make money two years later, he says, the landlord broke the terms of their rental agreement and forced them out by asking for more rent.

"This is by no means unusual," An says.

Legal Evening News reported that in 2010 about 20 stores closed or were forced to relocate because their rent had risen three times in three years. Many were shops, cafes and restaurants with features.