Yao'er Hutong housed a colorful cast of shady characters. [Photo: Global Times]

If you're in Qianmen and being driven to despair by the modern "traditional style" street, there are plenty of nearby hutong to explore. Yao'er is located south of Qianmen Main Street, and its name used to mean literally "want son."

But only local residents will be able to tell you that the reason for its name is because a Ming Dynasty family of obstetricians lived in this street for generations. Now "yao'er" more commonly means a kind of bird of prey.

A Robin Hood in Beijing

Its main claim to fame, though, is the former Metropolitan Police Detective Center at No.5 established in 1905, where criminals would be remanded and tried. Such folk legends as Li Jinghua, a Chinese Robin Hood figure said to have stolen from the wealthy as they slept and distributed his loot among the poor, were imprisoned here. Li was known as "Swallow" due to his ability to nip up walls and over roofs like a nimble bird. He was even known to leave behind origami swallows after a theft as a signature.

Li was detained and escaped many times, so much so that at one jail he was befriended by a prison officer who made life easy for Li to persuade him not to abscond. A little too easy, in fact - soon Li was being allowed out at night to steal and the two were sharing the spoils. When that got out, the pair were detained at No.5. To prevent escape, Li's legs were put in stocks. This time it was over for Li, and rumor has it that he died at the No.5 detention center in 1936.

A less shady character who also spent time at the prison was Zhang Guotao, an early leader of the Communist Party (see Laku Hutong: a royal revolutionary lane, March 4, 2010). After much torture, Zhang coughed up the names, resulting in a mass arrest of Communist Party members, a serious setback for the Party.