154 Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Beijing are now participating in a campaign called "I Love Beijing" to help bring attention to restoration efforts of ten hutongs in China's capital city.
Hutongs are narrow streets or alleys, most commonly associated with Beijing. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighborhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighborhoods.
In old China, streets and lanes were defined by width. Hutongs were lanes no wider than 9 meters. Beijing hutongs range in width from 10 meters down to only 40 centimeters. In recent decades, the number of Beijing hutongs has dropped dramatically as they are demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, some hutongs have been designated as protected areas in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history.
KFC's Beijing branch says it has donated more than RMB5 million to social causes in Beijing in recent years. During the first phase of the campaign of "I Love Beijing", customers can cast their vote for the top ten hutongs in Beijing.
"I Love Beijing" is a campaign coordinated by the Beijing 2008 Environment Construction office and Beijing Municipal government and its relevant departments.
