Beijing hutongs appeared with the development of Beijing City. In the Warring States Period (476 BC - 221 BC), the structure of the city was defined in regulations: "the city extends 9 Li (2.8 miles) with three gates, nine streets running from east to west and nine streets running from north to south…' In 1276, when the Yuan Dynasty was established, Beijing became the capital and was reconstructed on the lines of a chessboard. Later the government ordained that officials and the rich had priority to obtain land and build houses. The land each family received covered an area of eight Mu (1.3 acres). Therefore, the officials and the rich began to build courtyard houses. These were constructed in rows and the passages between them formed the hutongs.
In the Ming Dynasty, the government began large scale development of Beijing. The city was divided into two symmetrical halves by an invisible north-south axis. Consequently, all buildings were collocated symmetrically on either side of this axis, as were the hutongs. During the Qing Dynasty, because it was established by the Manchu, so the nobles and Manchu lived in the inner city, while the Han People were moved to the outer city. This meant more and more hutongs were built in the outer city. By that time, there were altogether 2,077 hutongs in Beijing.
When the Qing Dynasty was deposed early in the 20th century, the Forbidden City was opened to the public and thus an east-west axis appeared in the city, forming a big '+' with the former axis in front of Tiananmen Rostrum. From then on, hutongs were not restricted by the Forbidden City and could stretch from the big '+' in all directions. It is recorded that by the 1940s, there were over 3,200 hutongs in Beijing.
Learn More about Hutongs:Hutong Intro, Protection, Beijing Courtyards