According to historical records, there was already a small city on the site of present-day Beijing 3,000 years ago. It was in the 12th century during the Jin Dynasty (1115 - 1234) that Beijing became a capital city for the first time. At that time, there were no hutongs in Beijing, just streets and roads. Hutongs first appeared in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) after the original city was destroyed during a war. Most of the hutongs still in existence today date from the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) dynasties. It is, however, still possible to find some from the Yuan Dynasty. For instance, the Zhuanta Hutong on Xisi in the west of the city is one such ancient hutong. In dramas written during the Yuan period, the Zhuanta Hutong is often mentioned. The area was also the home of famous playwright Guan Hanqing, China's Shakespeare of the Yuan Dynasty.

Many hutongs have a story behind them. Near the Forbidden City in the heart of old Beijing is a hutong called "the Weaving Girl" named after the daughter of a god who descended to the human world with her sisters to swim in a river and then proceeded to fall in love with a cowherd. Her enraged father, the Celestial Emperor, took the girl back and separated the couple with the Milky Way. On the opposite side of the Forbidden City, there used to be a Cowherd Bridge. Flanked by the cowherd and the weaving girl, the suggestion was that the feudal emperors living in the Forbidden City were the sons of Heaven.

Beijing's hutongs are more than just architecture. They are the people who live there. They are a museum of Beijing's folk custom and they are a witness to the city's history.