Li has also decked out the windowsill with Chinese toys such as diabolo and shuttlecock, which foreigners find fascinating.

Odette Reich said she fell in love with jianzi (shuttlecock, but the variety that the Chinese play with their feet). "It's fun. I want to take one home and kick it around on the beach."

The host also marks out the locations of nearby restaurants and their special dishes for her foreign guests.

"It's an honor to stay in this unique place," Reich said.

This unique Chinese touch is what makes these traditional courtyards beat star-rated hotels as the first choice for some foreign tourists in Beijing

Wang Zhixi, who lives with her husband Jing Jichang in a courtyard house in Dajinsi Hutong, said many of their foreign friends stay at their home every time they come to Beijing.

Jacques, a French friend, has stayed there three times in recent years, she said. "The first time he came by himself on holiday. The next year he came back to learn calligraphy, and stayed with us again. This April he brought his wife and grandson along."

Though ordinary Chinese homes are unable to provide the hardware that star-rated hotels do, they provide "a feel of home", said Nicholas Slyger, from New Zealand.

And home, for these tourists, is where the heart is.