When living and working in Beijing, you meet surprisingly few people who are truly Beijing ren - born and raised in the city. Many hail from other parts of the mainland.
When you do meet a native, it's not surprising to find they grew up in a hutong - the lane between two courtyards, of which there are large clusters around the city.
The hutongs were originally designed in the late 1200s, under the Yuan dynasty, in part to consolidate royal power. The rich got homes near the Forbidden City. But no matter how powerful you were, if the emperor happened to pass by, your one-storey home would ensure you weren't looking down on him. After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the hutongs fell into disrepair. Many became no better than slums.
Now, the hutongs are being torn down to make way for modern living and the 2008 Olympics. The destruction of neighbourhoods that have centuries of history has provoked anger among some Chinese, international journalists and expats. Among the Beijing ren, however, few seem to be sad to see them torn down to make way for modern housing.
I asked one woman who had grown up in a hutong what she remembered about it. She replied: no electricity, no plumbing, smoky from burning coal in the winter, and cramped space. When asked if she thought the alleys should be torn down, she said: 'Most of them, yes. They should renovate the good ones, but do away with the poor ones.'
Many I've talked to - even those not afraid to criticise the government - seem to agree. No one wants to live in squalor for the sake of history.