Recently, more and more tourists are sitting in jinrick-shaws bobbling along the narrow streets of Hutongs while appreciating local customs, history and culture of Beijing.

The Hutong tours have become so popular that some jinrick-shaws have had to install extra seats for large groups of tourists.

However, this phenomenon has sparked a boom in illegal tours, where individual jinrick-shaw drivers go off the beaten path and also evade paying taxes on their income.

(CRI.com February 27, 2004)