I have lost my way in the hutongs around Shichahai more times than I care to admit, and that is exactly the appeal. These lanes are narrow enough that a car has to fold in its mirrors to pass, and they are the last substantial piece of old Beijing still standing. They were here long before the ring roads. Walking them first thing in the morning is the closest thing to time travel I have found in a capital city.

Start at the Drum and Bell Towers

Be at the Drum Tower by eight. The courtyard is quiet then, and the men who keep songbirds are already out, hanging their cages on the low branches and drinking tea out of thermos flasks. For 20 yuan you can climb the very steep wooden stairs to the top, where a row of drums the size of oil barrels faces south over the grey rooftops. The Bell Tower stands a few hundred metres behind it. I usually skip the second ticket and just stand in the square between the two, because that square is where the neighbourhood starts its day.

Breakfast in the lanes

Walk east from the Bell Tower and you are in the warren within minutes. You will pass a jianbing cart, a noodle shop with plastic stools out on the pavement, and at least one place selling baozi from a steamer the size of a bathtub. This is the best breakfast in Beijing and it costs almost nothing.

What to order

• Jianbing, a thin crepe with egg, scallion, coriander and a smear of chilli sauce, folded around a crisp cracker. About 8 yuan.
• Douzhi, fermented mung bean milk. It is sour and faintly fizzy. Most visitors hate it. I have grown fond of it, but order soymilk if you would rather not gamble on your first morning.
• Zhajiangmian, thick wheat noodles under a salty fermented bean sauce, if you want something that will hold you until dinner.

Around the lakes

Shichahai is three connected lakes, and the loop around the Houhai section takes about 40 minutes at an easy pace. In summer you will see people fishing where they should not be, and swimming in the same water. In winter the surface freezes thick and locals rent out ice skates by the hour. The bar street along the south bank gets loud and overpriced after dark, so I stay on the northern shore, where the houses still have their original grey brick and the occasional red door with brass studs.

A handful of the old courtyard homes, the siheyuan, are open as small museums, and one of them is worth the modest ticket if you want to understand how a Beijing family actually lived. Otherwise keep in mind that most of what you are walking past is somebody's front room. Photograph the door, not the person hanging out their laundry behind it.

Getting there and getting out

The nearest subway stops are Shichahai on Line 8 and Guloudajie on Lines 2 and 8, both within a five-minute walk of the towers. There is no fee for the lanes themselves. You pay only for the towers and any courtyard you choose to enter. Two to three hours is plenty for a first visit, and I would not schedule anything demanding afterwards, because you will want a nap.

Two things I wish someone had told me

If you take a rickshaw tour, agree the price and the length in writing before you sit down. The quoted number is sometimes per person, or per 15 minutes, and the argument at the end is not worth it.

And go on a weekday if you can. On weekends the main lanes toward the lake fill up with tour flags by ten in the morning, and the whole thing stops feeling like a neighbourhood. The side lanes stay quiet all day, so when in doubt, turn off.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.