Life in a hutong

Tan Siok Siok's black-and-white photos reveal a touching and lively side of daily lives in Beijing's hutong area.

But even after more than 1,000 days of work in the hutong, her passion did not fade as she tried to capture daily life from different angles.

One winter morning, she noticed an old man riding a three-wheeled vehicle very slowly, with his wife sitting behind him.

Tan followed the couple for a while to discover that they were taking a sightseeing tour of the hutong. The wife was unable to move due to her poor health condition, so her husband was showing her around the city.

"People in the hutong are optimistic and that touched my heart," Tan says.

She says Beijing is a city where the country's rapid changes are clearly visible, and in some ways, the same is true of the city's old alleyways.

Tan once saw the owners of shops enjoying tea in front of their outlets in Fangjia, but found that the shops had been demolished the following day.