BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Only one third of Beijing's hutongs still exist -- most have been demolished or partially destroyed, according to a newly-released survey.

    The field survey, conducted by the Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture, covered about 1,320 hutongs, traditional streets and lanes. It found that 205 hutongs, 15 percent of the total, have been completely demolished and made to give way to modern buildings.

    Another 52 percent have managed to retain something of their original condition but have suffered serious damage. Some only have a few courtyard houses left, in others the courtyard houses on one side of the hutong lane have been totally demolished.

    Only 430 hutongs, 33 percent of the 1,320 hutongs surveyed, have been able to preserve their original character.

    Hutongs are lanes lined with traditional Beijing courtyard houses. A traditional form of urban construction, they once formed a dense latticework in Beijing and are a traditional cultural feature of the city.

    Historical records show Beijing had a total of 458 hutongs in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and 978 hutongs during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

    The city boasted more than 3,679 hutongs in the 1980s, a number that plunged 40 percent as the city sought to make space for urban roads and skyscrapers.

    Up to 600 hutongs have been destroyed each year in a relentless drive to rebuild the old city, and now many people worry that Beijing has lost something of its essence as an old capital city.

    "Hutong" is originally a Mongolian expression meaning "well". In the old days, people lived together around a well and the "passages" they made formed today's hutongs.