My hostel, as I may have mentioned is in a neighborhood form the 12-14th century, called a hutong. Hutongs are historic neighborhoods, that are sadly being rebuilt, but some good comes out of it like indoor plumbing. Some of the richer people have built up their places. The hutong is something probably like the Eastern European Jewish shetl. Old people play ma zhong, if I only knew the rules, I could make a lot of friends, and hang out in the street. And guys collecting bottles and tin roam the
streets yelling something. It's seems very communal and everyone is in everyone's business.