Building new lives by the Drum and Bell towers(2)

Li's public rental home, which costs the family slightly more than 100 yuan a month, is 20 sq m, plus a 10-sq-m room built for her son and his wife.

"The relocation team asked how much we would accept in compensation the day they came to measure our houses," Li says.

"I won't even think about it. We're not leaving. Those who want to leave have bad living conditions or want big compensation."

The 58-year-old says she has heard the neighborhood will be renovated into luxury courtyards for foreigners. She says this angers and confuses her.

"I don't understand why people who have long lived in the city's heart should be pushed to the outskirts," she says.

There are practical reasons for wanting to retain their current hukou (residency permit).

"My son doesn't have a job now, but there are even fewer opportunities in the suburbs. What about my grandchildren's lives? If they're born in the suburbs, they'll miss out on better education and healthcare options available in the city."

Li says her mother recently died after moving into a high-rise. She blames the lack of exercise that came with her new housing.

Her family believes a massive renovation, rather than relocation, of the residential areas would help residents. But the government has so far only pressed for relocations rather than offer to renovate, and it also forbade residents from improving their properties, Li says.

Retired bus driver Bai Changyong has religious reasons for not wanting to live far away. He and his father worship at the nearby Deshengmen Mosque.

Moving away would tear them from the city's Muslim community. About 2,000 Muslims are concentrated near the city's center.

"It would be really hard for us to move away from our community. We'd hate to leave the halal food areas. Pork is the preferred meat in the rest of the city's butcher shops."

Bai believes developers will build new courtyards to sell to the rich.

Zhang Jiayu believes relocating would place financial strain on the neighborhoods' residents.

"Hutong dwellers don't have deep pockets," the 56-year-old says.

Just a few blocks southeast is the Heizhima Hutong Elementary School, a reputable 89-year-old public school where many parents compete for a seat for their children by offering "out-of-district fees" of at least 50,000 yuan ($7,904).

"We don't have to pay the fees because we live in the district. The school is a 10-minute walk for my granddaughter. What could be more convenient?" he says.

And Zhang's house is a two-minute walk from the Gulou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, where Zhang's 90-year-old father was snatched from the jaws of death.

Timing was everything when his father developed a brain infection.

"We need to live close to the hospital. No one can be certain there will be the same service in the new place."

He points out Beijing's gridlock often causes a drag on emergency vehicle response times.

And moving would transform their lifestyles.

Zhang walks his bird in a cage every day because he loves the excitement of neighbors' mahjong rounds.

"I don't play but love to interact with neighbors," he says. "I don't think I'll get to see it anymore after we move into a high-rise."

While four generations occupy his two-story, 50-sq-m traditional home in Zhongluowan Hutong, moving into a larger home isn't better, he says.

For the first of the three phases, Li Xiangyu's home - shared by her husband, daughter and son-in-law - on Tanggong Hutong is safe.

But she believes the demolished area will be turned into new courtyards, and green and parking areas that will expel the locals who have lived there for generations to create luxury residences for wealthy outsiders.

She hopes to see a renovation.

Her daughter and son-in-law don't like using the public toilet. And the narrow roads are always crammed with tourism buses, which makes going out "scary".

Her father died defending his house from demolition elsewhere years ago.

"Every demolition takes human lives," she says. "It is not only houses that are torn down but also family bonds."