Keong Saik Road in Singapore

23 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Jacklee/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Jacklee/cc-by-sa-4.0

Keong Saik Road is a one-way road located in Chinatown within the Outram Planning Area in Singapore. The road links New Bridge Road to Neil Road, and is intersected by Kreta Ayer Road. Keong Saik Road was named in 1926 after the Malacca-born Chinese businessman, Tan Keong Saik, in remembrance to his contribution to the Chinese community.   read more…

Ivry-sur-Seine in the Île-de-France region

2 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Paris / Île-de-France Reading Time:  5 minutes

Town hall © flickr.com - Guilhem Vellut/cc-by-2.0

Town hall © flickr.com – Guilhem Vellut/cc-by-2.0

Ivry-sur-Seine is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 5.3 kilometres (4 mi) from the centre of Paris. Paris’s main Asian district, the Quartier Asiatique in the 13th arrondissement, borders the commune and now extends into the northern parts of Ivry. Asian commercial activity, especially Chinese and Vietnamese, has greatly increased in Ivry-sur-Seine during the past two decades. The commune contains one of the highest concentrations of Vietnamese in France, who began settling in the city in the late 1970s after the Vietnam War.   read more…

North Miami Beach

11 November 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Miami / South Florida Reading Time:  6 minutes

Art Deco Hotel in the North Shore Historic District © flickr.com - Phillip Pessar/cc-by-2.0

Art Deco Hotel in the North Shore Historic District © flickr.com – Phillip Pessar/cc-by-2.0

North Miami Beach (commonly referred to as NMB) is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Originally named Fulford-by-the-Sea in 1926 after Captain William H. Fulford of the United States Coast Guard, the city was renamed North Miami Beach in 1931. The population is at 46,000. The hurricane of 1926 essentially ended the South Florida real estate boom, and in an effort to alleviate their losses and the damage to the city, local residents came together as the Town of Fulford. In 1927, the city was incorporated as the City of Fulford. Although the North Miami Beach boundaries once stretched to the Atlantic Ocean, this city on the Intracoastal Waterway no longer has any beaches within its city limits, although they are a short distance away across the inlet. North Miami Beach has a large middle class Haitian-American and Jewish-American community who were born in the U.S. or abroad.   read more…

West End of London

11 January 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London Reading Time:  10 minutes

Piccadilly Circus © flickr.com - Jimmy Baikovicius/cc-by-sa-2.0

Piccadilly Circus © flickr.com – Jimmy Baikovicius/cc-by-sa-2.0

The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End), is an area of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city’s major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings and entertainment venues, including West End theatres, are concentrated. Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross. The West End covers part of the boroughs of Westminster and Camden.   read more…

Chinatown in New York

12 February 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City Reading Time:  15 minutes

© chensiyuan/cc-by-sa-4.0

© chensiyuan/cc-by-sa-4.0

Manhattan‘s Chinatown is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, bordering the Lower East Side to its east, Little Italy to its north, Civic Center to its south, and Tribeca to its west. Chinatown is home to the highest concentration of Chinese people in the West. With an estimated population of 90,000 to 100,000 people, Manhattan’s Chinatown is also one of the oldest Chinese ethnic enclaves. The Manhattan Chinatown is one of nine Chinatown neighborhoods in New York City, as well as one of twelve in the New York metropolitan area, which contains the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, comprising an estimated 820,000 uniracial individuals.   read more…

Theme Week San Francisco

19 June 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  24 minutes

Market Street and Downtown from Twin Peaks © Vincent.bloch

Market Street and Downtown from Twin Peaks © Vincent.bloch

San Francisco (Spanish for Saint Francis) officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations. Located at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula, San Francisco is about 47.9 square miles (124 km²) in area, making it the smallest county—and the only consolidated city-county—within the state of California. With a density of about 18,451 people per square mile (7,124 people per km²), San Francisco is the most densely settled large city (population greater than 200,000) in California and the second-most densely populated major city in the United States after New York City. San Francisco is the fourth-most populous city in California, after Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose, and the 13th-most populous city in the United States—with a census-estimated 2015 population of 864,816. The city and its surrounding areas are known as the San Francisco Bay Area, and are a part of the larger OMB-designated San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland combined statistical area, the fifth most populous in the nation with an estimated population of 8.7 million. Several picturesque islandsAlcatraz, Treasure Island and the adjacent Yerba Buena Island, and small portions of Alameda Island, Red Rock Island, and Angel Island—are part of the city. Also included are the uninhabited Farallon Islands, 27 miles (43 km) offshore in the Pacific Ocean. The mainland within the city limits roughly forms a “seven-by-seven-mile square”, a common local colloquialism referring to the city’s shape, though its total area, including water, is nearly 232 square miles (600 km²). San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís named for St. Francis of Assisi a few miles away. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was the port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, massive immigration, liberalizing attitudes, along with the rise of the “hippie” counterculture, the Sexual Revolution, the Peace Movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States. A popular tourist destination, San Francisco is known for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Fisherman’s Wharf, and its Chinatown district.   read more…

Theme Week Havana – Centro Habana

20 May 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Capitol and cars © Ji-Elle/cc-by-sa-4.0

Capitol and cars © Ji-Elle/cc-by-sa-4.0

Centro Habana is one of the 15 municipalities or boroughs (municipios in Spanish) in the city of Havana. There are many retail spaces (such as Plaza de Carlos III commercial center), office buildings, hotels, bars and clubs (such as the Casa de la Musica on Galliano).   read more…

Theme Week San Francisco – Chinatown

27 April 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  6 minutes

Chinatown - Arch gateway © chensiyuan/cc-by-sa-4.0

Chinatown – Arch gateway © chensiyuan/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Chinatown centered on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street in San Francisco is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia. It is the oldest of the four notable Chinatowns in the city. Since its establishment in 1848, it has been highly important and influential in the history and culture of ethnic Chinese immigrants in North America. Chinatown is an enclave that continues to retain its own customs, languages, places of worship, social clubs, and identity. There are two hospitals, numerous parks and squares, a post office, and other infrastructure. While recent immigrants and the elderly choose to live in here because of the availability of affordable housing and their familiarity with the culture, the place is also a major tourist attraction, drawing more visitors annually than the Golden Gate Bridge.   read more…

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