Dec 26 2020

Qianmen 前门

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In 1950s: A beautiful drawing from the following post on News Sina caught my eyes. The caption reads: A bird’s-eye view of Qianmen (Front Door) in the 1950s, by Zhao Xishan. This article is about the memory of 孔庆普 Kong Qingpu, how old Beijing was demolished.

五十年代的 鸟瞰前门, 赵锡山老人手绘图

回忆:我是怎样拆掉北京城墙的
从1368年起,历经明、清两代,北京的城墙基本成型,至民国时期整体布局依然得以保存。新中国成立初期,政府也对旧城进行了考察、修复工作。但自1953年起,风向转变,首都交通改善工程大步向前迈,城墙、城门、牌楼成为


Dec 21 2020

Flushing, 2020


This year, 2020, is dominated by covid-19 pandemic. Although I don’t know anyone who has it but few did get laid off as the economy worsened.

I don’t go to Flushing as often, maybe every other month. Three of my go-to eateries on Main Street, a restaurant, one makes chive pancakes and one meat buns are replaced.

  1. Chaozhou (?) 潮州 became Xing Fu Tang 幸福堂 Happy House.
  2. Tianjin Pancake 天津馅饼 became Wenzhou Chicken 温州熏鸡
  3. Meat-buns 肉包子 in the old Golden Market, is under renovation.

 

From Prince Street to 40th Road. I got a few chive pancakes from Corner 28 (a separate vendor) and the quality is poor, cost 25% more at $2 each.

 


Dec 18 2020

Snowy park

Plastic, is a huge problem: the wintery wave pushed up all wastes in the park, mostly are plastics.

The little girl looks pretty surrounded by the snow. The phone booth survives but the ice machine/storage is gone. A dead fish.

 


Dec 17 2020

The first snow

The first of the season, with a decent amount.


Dec 15 2020

Connetquot River, Long Island, NY


Suffolk County, New York

This Long Island river is also known as Great River. Although only 6 miles long, it’s one of the longest river on LI.

There are many large estates along the banks: W.L. Breece, W. Bayard Cutting (1850-1912), William K. Vanderbilt I (1849-1920) and C.R. Robert, and they were credited to have protected the river, making it clearest river on Long Island.

Upstream has the Connetquot River state park preserve, and near the mouth is the Bayard Cutting Arboretum.