Old, walled courtyard homes are the building blocks of this delightful maze of lanes.

这些古老的四合院就是错综复杂的小巷的节点。

youdao

The brick of the dusty courtyard homes filtered the thunder from the bars. There are very few lights in a hutong at night.

透过四合院的砖墙传出了里面喧闹的酒吧的声音。

youdao

Today, the old center of Pingyao is a place of 40, 000 people crammed into narrow alleyways and courtyard homes hidden behind decrepit wooden doors.

今天，平遥古城中心狭窄的街道和破旧木门后的庭院里塞着四万居民。

youdao

Yet, visitors to Beijing do not have to go too far off the beaten path to find dingy alleyways lined by what remains of the old courtyard homes that exist in clusters, like islands on the verge of being swallowed by the tidal wave of new China.

CNN: April 10, 2012 -- Updated 1353 GMT (2153 HKT)

When early modernism came around in the 1930s, however, courtyard homes weren't as prevalent because houses tended to be more of an "object in the landscape" instead of being intertwined with the outdoors, Mr. Dick, the architect, says.

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An hour from Udaipur, another Indian city, the authors spotted well-tended homes with motorcycles in the courtyard and children in starched school uniforms.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus: The in-betweeners | The