Jun 242014
 

 

A Picture from Philly Chinatown

 desis or the diaspora from Asia and Indian subcontinent are one of the most widespread ethnic groups in USA, but for some reason they are just clubbed as Asians or in some cases South Asians.  But while desis started migrating en masse to US mainly after 80s and more so in 90s with the IT boom, Chinese diaspora has been in US for more than a 100 years in a large number.

I had no knowledge about the same till I watched the Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson movies with absolutely crazy plots namely Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights. The movies take you to a bit of fantasy laced history of Chinese migrant labours to US during the time the great railroads were being built.  Today there is hardly any city of a decent size in US that does not have a Chinatown. While we desis love to compare ourselves with China and Chinese, I don’t think this is a favorite pastime of Chinese. ( Now is that food for thought or what ? )

In today’s Travel Tuesday picture I am sharing a picture of Chinatown in Philadelphia that I took from the top of open bus, while on a city tour of Philadelphia on a  hot July afternoon a few years ago.

Philadelphia Chinatown tour

Philadelphia Chinatown picture taken from top of Open Bus tour

It was one of the hottest day in Philadelphia and against all suggestions I decided to take the open bus tour not realizing how hot it would be. I was like  “Come on guys I live in India, how hot can it be for a desi like me”  

How wrong I was.  It was not only hot, but also very humid  and with the sun blazing on the top not one of the best days to explore a city. Yet hundreds of people were on streets to see the various attractions of city of Philadelphia, the birthplace of American Democracy and the city where the founding fathers of US signed the declaration of Independence. I wrote more  in detail about this visit here on Ghumakkar some time back.

There is nothing special about the picture above except for the equipment it was taken. I clicked this picture from my 2 Megapixel Nokia Phone, ( yes 2 Megapixel phone camera !). It was top of the line in those days and l loved it, more so because I received the phone as a gift from my team as a farewell gift when I changed a job.( Miss you all folks, let us catch up soon when I am in town ) Those were the days when phones were more sturdy and less smart, but this particular model was one of the first so-called smart phone and in times of need could also be used a weapon.  All the pictures you will see in this post on Ghumakkar are taken from the same phone. Damn I miss that phone!

Learn here more about Philadelphia Chinatown.

BTW trivia: Do you know that we have a Chinatown in Kolkata, where you get some of the best Chinese food in India ( after all it is made by people of Chinese descent, and also in Delhi there are some shops in CP, owned by Chinese Shoemakers, who still make shoes the old-fashioned way )

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  4 Responses to “Philadelphia Chinatown”

Comments (4)
  1. The Chinatown in Kolkata is awesome. They serve the best Chinese food in the entire country. Interestingly China Town Kolkata has a Chinese “kali” mandir. Kali being the chief goddess in Bengal isn’t this interesting?

  2. a good shot indeed .. somehow i feel nokia’s are still good phones

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