Pay Phone

A while back Quincy Daily Photo asked about phone booths in your town. There certainly aren't as many in Boston as there used to be, but I found these in Chinatown and thought they were awesome.

Dainty

The Dainty Dot Hosiery building is located at the corner of Kingston and Essex Streets, between Chinatown and the Leather District. It was planned and built in 1889-1890, and half of the building was lopped off in order to build the surface artery, leaving behind just 6 stories and 53,000 square feet. Just over a year ago, in November of 2006, the building was purchased by a developer who is supposedly planning on making the building into housing (Boston Globe article here).

Suishaya

Easily my favorite shot from my walk through Chinatown.

Ephelant

This mural is just outside the Chinatown Gate. It was painted by the Boston Youth Conservation Corps (BYCC), whose work I first saw along the Neponset River Greenway by my house in Dorchester. I could have sworn I had already posted pictures of those murals, but I guess not...I'll be sure to do that soon!

Happy New Year!

过年好 - 過年好 - guònian hǎo

Unintentionally, I started this Chinatown series right before the Chinese New Year, and if I had planned better, I would have gone down to Chinatown this past weekend to get some photos of the New Years celebrations and Lion dancing to post for today. Next year I'll do that, I promise! Instead of Lions, today you get Beach Street - the "Main Street" of Chinatown. It's full of restaurants, shops with chicken and fish and crabs in the windows, and, of course, traffic!

The Chinese New Year is the most important of the Traditional Chinese Holidays, and celebrations last for 15 days. The Chinese calendar is a lunar one, with celebrations beginning on the second new moon of the winter solstice, and typically ending around the following full moon with a Lantern Festival. This year is the year of the Rat, and year 4705 by the Chinese Calendar. Wikipedia has a page that lists a lot of information about the festivities, food, and traditions of the Chinese New Year if you'd like to learn more.

Welcome!

Chinatown gate, located at the corner of Beach St and the Surface Road. Until recently, the area you see in front of this gate (where I was standing) was a complete mess - right next to a highway off ramp, run down, and dirty. With the completion of the Big Dig and now the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, the area is now a nice, open plaza that is certainly more welcoming than in the past.

Roar!

Lions outside the Chinatown Gate, now part of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway

Not Your Average Maccas

McDonald's, Chinatown.

I took a walk through Chinatown and shot a handful of pictures, so I wanted to share them here over the next few days. I've never really spent a lot of time in the neighborhood and I think I'll need to change that in the future!

F A O

This is the FAO Schwarz bear, which used to be located in front of the FAO Schwarz store on Boylston Street. The store closed in 2004, and the bear now lives here, greeting visitors to The Floating Hospital for Children. The Floating Hospital is no longer floating, but is part of the Tufts-New England Medical Center located on Washington Street, just between Chinatown and the Theater District.