Cycling Greenways – Umbilical Cord to My Past Neighbourhoods: Prairies, West Coast and Ontario

A  long bike route near home, joins my memories like a green umbilical cord, to places where I’ve lived and biked in Canada for the past 22 years.  My green route curls and unwinds in Toronto, Vancouver and now, Calgary.  To know, and to memorize each twist, bump, hill and breathless plateau of a bike path at my doorstep, is akin to knowing a secret hummingbird pulse of a big, noisy city.

Jogging and cycling on Humber River bridge in Toronto’s west-end near Etobicoke. Along the Martin Goodman trail that is part of the bigger Waterfront Trail along Lake Ontario. Photo by J.Chong 2011.

I have been content and cosy in each chosen neighbourhood which has been oriented for cyclists and pedestrians in each of these cities across Canada. I know each entire city is still not completely this way, but I have made conscious choices to live in certain neighbourhoods that met my needs.

Waterloo, Ontario: Childhood Cycling Joy in Cycleable, Walkable Neighbourhood

King & William Streets. Downtown Waterloo, Ontario 2012. 1 block away from childhood street, was and still close to shops, school and transit. Photo by I.Yee

But I go back further to my first childhood bike route, a maple tree shaded street in Waterloo, Ontario. It was here, this lovely street with friendly neighbours, that seeded my bicycling dreams.  It was a one-way, one lane street off a busy downtown main street where I learned to bike at 11 years old, with younger siblings.My parents actively chose a home in Waterloo downtown’s core in the 1970′s –a walk 10 minutes  to transit and 15 minutes to a shopping area and school.  We didn’t have any car for a few years.

We took turns learning to bike,  by holding the saddle and handlebar for each other and wobbling up and down the sidewalk on a shared bike with no training wheels.  We could only afford 2 bikes for 6 children.

Under iron hand wrought roof art of the Music Pavilion within the Music Garden. Harbourfront. Overlooking Lake Ontario. Toronto 2012. Music Garden, a park inspired by TV music performance by classical cello player, Yo-Yo Ma of baroque composer, JW Bach’s Suite No.1 in G. Major. Painted piano, 1 of 41+ public pianos placed all over downtown Toronto for impromptu playing by anyone. Streetscaping art work for Pan American Games 2015. Photo by J. Chong

Later, I escaped joyfully  away  from babysitting duties, by twirling my bike  past lovely, nineteenth century homes with rambling, wrap-around porches and stained glass windows on our street.

Home during my lifetime include: apartments, houses and condos. Painting along Bow River bike-pedestrian path. Kensington neighbourhood, Calgary 2013. Photo by J. Chong

Neighbourhood Heritage and Progress Converge: Walking Tour, Iron Horse Bike Trail
Forty years later, I just discovered my childhood street has become a local historic street worthy of a walking tour and a web site.  Now just two blocks away, is a signed bike path, the Iron Horse Trail. But back then, my street was the best street to come home on bike.  In autumn, I rode dreamily under a gold-orange blazing canopy of mature trees and through crackling piles of raked leaves along the street. It was stuff that sparked a bout of poetry writing.

Then the bike was forgotten while I buckled under my university studies, then relocation to London and Toronto.

Bike rack sculpture. Kensington Market area. Toronto, ON 2012. Photo by J. Becker. Area historically known as highly ethnic area –Jewish, Italian, Portuguese and East Asian. Still retains these roots reflected in food shops, cafes but now more shops with bohemian artistic flair and some gentrification in residential streets.

Toronto: Bike Longing and Reigniting My Cycling Passion
Several years later, I resigned myself to a home in a highrise building near a subway station in Scarborough.  Except for the green tree canopy, my balcony view seemed furthest away from childhood sun-dappled shady streets.  By then, I was hankering to bicycle again.  But somehow, I had landed in a semi-suburban fringe of highrises and strip malls, north of Toronto’s Beaches area.

Cycling lower Don River bike path with Bloor St. Viaduct in distance. Bike route is embedded in Toronto’s ravine parks –under the Don Valley Expressway. Part of my daily 30 km. round trip bike commuting route between workplace, downtown Toronto and Scarborough home for over 14 yrs. Photo by J. Becker 2012

Striking Lucky: Living Near Toronto’s Bike Routes  
Later, I was thrilled to discover that I lived only a 5 –minute bike ride away from Toronto’s extensive Don River Valley and its well-connected bike network like a spider web, buried in its ravine parks. Only 8 km. south of home, was Toronto’s Beaches neighbourhood where the Waterfront bike-pedestrian route runs through along the lake.

Bici -Public bike share. Downtown University of Toronto campus area. Huron and Harbord Streets. Photo by J.Chong 2011

These wonderful cycling discoveries were revealed after meeting my new partner. With Jack, I jumped back onto a new bike and learned of another new hidden world of Toronto snaking under the Don Valley Parkway north to Sunnybrook Park and west through the Humber Valley.

Arresting outdoor art sculpture at Goderham Distillery district. East of St. Lawrence Market near Waterfront Trail. Toronto ON 2012. Photo by J.Chong. Heritage area of former distillery buildings now into shops, public square for pedestrians and light cycling.

Over months and years, I learned to join different bike routes between home and work, between home and pleasure. I cycled the Waterfront Bike Trail that edged Lake Ontario and wandered into the Beaches area, before cycling homeward.

After work, I pushed the pedals as far as Etobicoke and back home after work, on some summer evenings. On those evenings, it was a solo 53 km round trip.  I was addicted to my cycling route forays, the bike, and to freedom.

Bike Routes Near Home: Familiar Touchstone After Long Rides
Other times, a bike route near home, was a safe touchstone after cycling home on multi-day trips, from Kingston, Peterborough or just Kleinberg.

False Creek at sunrise. Looking out towards Science World, the geodesic building. Olympic Village on right. Vancouver BC. Photo by J. Chong. Seaside bike path winds along the edge of False Creek from Stanley Park to Granville Market.

My best Toronto bike path memories were suffused with paintbrush splashed autumn trees and glowing red sumac bushes.

I brought along those slow burning memories, when we moved later, to Vancouver.   We lived by the famed Seaside-Seawall bike path that threads through Stanley Park, Olympic Village and to Granville Island.

On our bikes, we inhaled  sea air tang.  As we turned our handlebars, the North Shore mountains rose  ahead.  Like other cities, I learned the best times to cycle, was in the stillness of early morning sunrise before hordes of walkers, roller bladers, dogs and cyclists.

Bike wheels transformed into garden screen for Mount Pleasant community garden. Along Ontario St. bike route. Vancouver 2012. Photo by J. Chong

Daily Cycling Bliss-Out: Vancouver BC
I went further, by cycling Stanley Park in the dark as part of my extended cycling to work route.  I needed to lengthen cycling gloriousness before arriving at work downtown.

We swept down paved, empty roads in the park with our tiny firefly bike lights flickering faintly in the wooded deep darkness. No one else was around when we cycled up to Prospect Point by Lion’s Gate Bridge.  This was my commuting bliss out every day for several years.  Rain mist became a veil to enrich the colours of flowers that were bigger and more brilliant here, than elsewhere in Canada.  Cyclists spun by in rain while café drinkers still hung out, chatting away under the awning.

Cycling along the Seaside path by False Creek. Downtown Vancouver

In the evening, on our highrise balcony, many ant-like cyclists crisscrossed the paths and bridges below.  Swarms filled the paths on a summer evening by False Creek where kayakers and dragon boaters ply the sea waters. It was urban west coast life at

Magnolia and cherry blossom trees along Seaside bike path. North False Creek, David Lam Park. Downtown Vancouver BC. Photo by J. Chong 2013

its best.  I still linger over this view whenever I visit and marvel the magnolia and cherry trees popping their blushing blooms in spring time.

Swept Along or Fighting Chinook Winds: Calgary, Alberta
Now, it’s still cyclists trundling on another path, –along the Bow and Elbow Rivers.  Here the gentle, grassy prairie hills rise in green-gold and yellow dry layers, from the blue-green waters swirling downstream  from the Rockies  into Calgary.  I ride through the

Bow River bike-pedestrian path. Calgary 2012. Photo by J.Chong

teeth of the chinook headwind any season and face-numbing winter cold at -25 degrees C.  The dry air is sunlit and loose.  It’s not the red cardinal that flits across my path but a brilliant blue black magpie bird that hops heavily along the verges.    Tiny rodent prairie dogs play tumble on top of one another, while long legged pale jack rabbits leap away from the path in the heart of the city.  There are less bushes and trees to screen creatures and oncoming cyclists.

Fall. Edgeworthy Park, western end of Bow River bike route. Calgary AB 2012. Photo by J.Chong

I ride with poignant memories, dreams and gladness for these neighbourhoods in the Canadian cities where I have lived,  explored their intimate corners and have celebrated on bike.  When I close my eyes, each familiar bike route calls out to me to return home again and again. And I do.

By “Raindrop”, a permanent outdoor art work . Coal Harbour along Seaside-Seawall bike-pedestrian path. Vancouver, BC 2012

Big wild rabbits sometimes hop about in East Village near Riverwalk bike-pedestrian path. Downtown Calgary. 2012.

Further Reading:
Harbourfront Centre. The Music Garden. More about this unique City of Toronto park. Aerial view of the park reveals gardens and walkways designed in the shape of a musical note. Garden designs are inspired by each music movement: prelude, allemande, courante, etc.

Street Pianos. 41 uniquely painted pianos in Toronto’s public spaces for 41 countries, that will be competing in the Pan-American Games in Toronto.

Waterloo Public Library. Waterloo Historical Walking Tours: Mary-Allen Neighbourhood. Sample houses on childhood street of George St.  It was socio-economically mixed neighbourhood with blend of low income residents (like our family), middle class to upper middle class.

Adult tricycle near St. Lawrence Community Centre. Downtown Toronto. Along The Esplanade, a block from St. Lawrence Market. Photo by J.Chong 2011.

Are You a Couch Foodie, Garden Foodie or Stove-Top Foodie?

Jack’s homemade crepes with rhubarb, blackberry and raspberry compose are always a crowd pleaser.

Recently in a cycling forum, a question floated over the Internet: “Do you have a discerning palate?” That got me thinking about foodies, people who pride themselves as food connoisseurs, worldly arbitrators of food dishes from a dizzying array of cuisines.

Just a Stove-Top Foodie: Homespun Knowledge
I fancy myself as a foodie. Not a complete foodie addict, but more a casual stove-top foodie than a Food Network TV couch foodie. In fact, I’d rather not be part of the cursed couch foodies that sparks the ire of some Vancouver chefs. According to the restaurant industry, the Food TV Network, has changed the culinary scene. As one local chef opined:

“.…What makes Vancouver restauranteurs’ and chefs’ jobs challenging is today, everybody believes they’re an expert when they don’t have enough background.”

Indeed, this is the challenge or problem, these days for big city chefs anywhere in a competitive restaurant market.

Guavas on a tree at a guava plantation. Big Hawai’i Island 2002. Photo by J.Chong

Growing a Foodie
I’m a stove-top foodie, because my culinary palate was stoked decades ago, long before Food TV Network, and before I knew how to read cookbooks. As any Asian kid raised on a traditional Asian cuisine, will tell you, babies and children learn to eat all sorts of weird, mostly wonderful stuff without even knowing the English translation for every ingredient or the cooked dish itself. Sometimes I still don’t even remember the proper Chinese name for the dish. But I eat it anyway.

Dinner at one of many Chinese-Japanese restaurants. Toronto, ON 2011.

It wasn’t until my teens I realized I was eating rehydrated lily buds in steamed Chinese meat dishes, bird’s nest soup at wedding banquets and wood ear fungus in Mom’s stir-fries. This was the early 1970’s, not today, when weird food reports have now penetrated globally via the Internet, tv and celebrity cowboy chefs, like Anthony Bourdain storytelling their culinary discoveries.

Children: Equal Partners in Food Discovery
It is children who sit equally at the table with their parents, at a feast or restaurant and gobble down, course after course, of less familiar foods, minus the tea and wine. These

Duck with berry red wine sauce and bowl of spaetzle on side. Strasbourg, France 2010. French Alsatian regional cooking has German influences. And vice versa also: southern German dishes are more delicate in taste and execution because of French influence.

children are not food-ghettoized to their own table of bland adult food versions.

This is how a child becomes a stove-top foodie: they are expected to try a food dish, be a teachable guest, learn over time by taste, what makes the dish enjoyable or dull. Not by how a food dish looks. How else do you think very young children can happily eat tofu, hot curry or sushi?

As I had explained in an earlier blog post, my palate and knowledge of cooking techniques was confined narrowly to Cantonese style cuisine until I left home. It was the regional cooking that my parents grew up and knew. That was my “restricted” culinary world living 100 km. west of Toronto.

Georgia Cannery, Richmond BC. A historic site where there was once several major salmon canneries along the British Columbia coast that employed aboriginals, Japanese and Chinese Canadians. Part of understanding local food heritage.

I didn’t scratch the surface or even know about Malaysian, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese as well as South Asian fare, until I earned enough money to eat in restaurants. I actually considered (and still do) cheaper just to cook Chinese food at home.

Later, I layered my stove-top palate, with a few seminal cookbooks and literary foodie books on long, diverse gastronomic history of Chinese cuisine, lore and technique. Fuschia Dunlop’s Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Chinese Cooking, as well as  books by Chinese cookbook authors from disapora, — U.S. and Britain, who went to visit motherland to document and photo -shoot their culinary connections and discoveries.

Typical home-cooked meal- stir fried veggies that includes fresh water chestnuts, daikon and wood ear fungus

Refined Tastebuds Discern Gastronomic Nuances and Innovations
A well-tuned palate for at least, one complex cuisine, can quickly distinguish between the canon of restaurant cuisine and home-cooking, along with nuances of quality and inventiveness.

Now, with East-West fusion cuisine, it does tease your tastebuds out of complacency. But there are some no-no’s to me, no matter how innovative: raw bok choy just is so …wrong.

Ice cream sandwich vendor pedals her handmade goodies by bike. Farmers’ market by Vancouver railway station. 2012 Photo by J. Chong

But last year, for the first time I had raw, fresh kohl rabi slices. It was delicately crisp and lovely. I was more familiar with kohl rabi soup from childhood or Jack’s German dish of sautéed kohl rabi with a white sauce.

Happily my stove-top palate is enriched with exposure to finer German cuisine. I don’t mean just beer, bratwurst and sauerkraut. I’ve written about my cycling adventures on spargel (white asparagus), multi-layered cake tortes and dumpfnudel, the German cousin of Chinese bao.

No doubt, I have yet to fully know, the spicy nuances for all regions of India or miso differences favoured in Japanese and Korean cooking. But I could tell you that won ton or gyoza like wet dumplings shares similarities with Ukranian perogies and Italian ravioli. It’s differences in cooking technique, fillings and sometimes sauces and dips.

Café sign beckons with beer, meat dishes and kugelhof cake in heart of Strasbourg, France. 2010. Photo by J. Chong

As for ever becoming a garden foodie, nah. I’ll leave it to the patient gardeners and farmers.

Some of My Favourite  Foodie Blog Posts and More: 
Come and Get Your Dumplings: Some West-East Comparisons.

Cycle-Adventuring for Fun, Low Cost Food at Ethnic Grocery Stores and Supermarkets.

Easily Drunk on Cycle Touring in Wine Regions.

Home baked salmon fillet wrapped in phyllo with leek in white sauce on side.

Growing Up and Cycling Through the Years to Farmers’ Markets Home and Abroad.

Kicking Up Schiacciata Con Frutta: Grape Focaccia My Way with Ginger Root and Spices.

Lotus Flower: From Root to Flower to Seed, It Feeds Our Senses.

Romanticizing the Best: Asian Craze for European Desserts.  See under Site Index at the top of this blog for more foodie blog posts.

Da Silva, Michelle. How Food Television is Changing the Way We Dine. In Georgia Straight. Mar. 12, 2012.

Bike tire garden trellis at Mount Pleasant community gardens. Vancouver BC 2012. Photo by J.Chong

Cycle-Adventuring for Fun, Low-Cost Food at Ethnic Grocery Stores and Supermarkets

Large variety of freshly made sushi packs. Fujiya Japanese Supermarket. Vancouver, BC

Yes, I know: in major to medium sized cities, you can drop by big, non-ethnic supermarket chains and load up on fresh ginger, pita bread or curry paste. Heck, even a deal on bitter melon is even possible these days.

No Need for Food Coupons
I have not used any food coupons over the past 3 decades. Instead, I’ve relied on low-cost food discoveries in ethnic grocery stores, farmers’ markets and only 1-2 national mainstream supermarkets.

By the sushi, sashimi and miso soup counter. Fujiya’s, Vancouver BC.

I happily patronized 1-3 different ethnic grocery stores and supermarket stores when I have lived in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. It takes time to find them. But cycling does encourage me to explore, in search of food deals at a few select places that are kind to the food budget yet interesting places just to browse briefly.

Japanese Supermarket for Fresh, Cheaper Sushi
In Vancouver, we occasionally cycled over to the Japanese local supermarket chain, Fujiya near the Adanac bike route. If you want competitively priced, freshly made but packaged sushi and sashimi combinations, this is the place. Along with a tray or two of sushi, is their bowl of miso soup for a simple, cheap lunch at their little eating area inside, at the front of the store. Fujiya has some outlets in Metro Vancouver. Not surprisingly, the multi-generational local Japanese-Canadians go there and everyone else.

Chinese gunpowder green tea –with trilingual packaging from a Middle Eastern store.

At minimum, I usually end up buying a big pack of green tea or buckwheat noodles. But there is a diverse selection of Japanese teas, miso pastes and dried seaweeds. I don’t buy much from this suite of Japanese staples, but it still is interesting just to look at the differences in Japanese teas versus the Chinese teas.

A slice of historic Chinatown. Vancouver, BC. 2010. Mural reflects some aboriginal imagery, indigenous to northwest coast cultural history.Photo by J. Chong

  More Rice Diversity at Chinese One-Stop Supermarket
Maybe I’m not remembering correctly, but Fujiya doesn’t offer the same diversity of rice in sacks compared to some Chinese grocery stores. I do shop at the Chinese mega-chain (at least for North American Chinese supermarkets) at T & T’s — more for convenience instead of continuously great deals. Some of their prices are higher than independent Chinese grocery stores. Annoyingly, sometimes large bunches of Chinese greens are bundled  in plastic and sold by  weight. Not practical when buying for only 1-2 people.

At Byblos wholesale bakery outlet and a bike ride stop: Middle Eastern phyllo pastry made of custard-like cream, sprinkled with pistachios.

But still, it’s just easier to manoeuvre around in wider shopping aisles.  The shelves are filled with a mind-boggling variety of foods that either I’ve never tried (and some I never will, since it’s processed and packaged junk food a la Asian-style) or my decision-making is challenged on which brand to try.  It used to be rice. But since I don’t eat much rice anymore, it’s Chinese noodles now –certain types of noodles. T & T has spread its supermarket empire across Canada. There are some differences between Vancouver stores and the single Calgary store. Vancouver locations offer a lot more fresh seafood and wider range of locally made fresh Chinese noodles.  I haven’t visited Calgary store often enough to see if they’ve gone as far as to introduce bison or venison to their customers. But it’s only a matter of time when they do.

Stacks of large couscous sacks and different types at Middle Eastern shops. Calgary, AB

 Piles of Middle Eastern Couscous Sacks
For Middle Eastern groceries, we have the easy convenience near a bike route to access Byblos, a Middle Eastern wholesale bakery outlet in Calgary which also supplies Western Canada. It’s typical to see customers sail out of the store with over 10-20 packs of pita bread for their families or more likely, their own restaurants.

After packing away pita bread, some phyllo pastries with pistachios, hazelnuts and thankfully, less syrupy than Greek versions and freshly made hummus, we settle down for a sumach spiced flatbread, a pastry and drink before climbing back on the bikes.

East Indian tea brands with British colonial branding. Basha Foods International, Calgary AB.

Just a block away is Basha Foods International, a large Middle Eastern supermarket that has instead, sacks of rice varieties with Middle East or Indian brands as well as whole aisles devoted to diverse selection and large volumes of beans, millet, couscous and barley.

Colonial Tea Branding in South Asian Teas, Not East Asian Brands
Packaged tea has Middle Eastern script with branding that reflects British colonial past — totally different from Chinese tea branding which retains more often, Chinese imagery and logos with no reference to British connections. But then except for Hong Kong and Macau, China was never colonized. Same for Japanese teas and their branding.

Giant moon cakes for Chinese mid-Autumn festival –enough to feed a whole party for dessert. T & T’s supermarket. Calgary, AB

Someone mentioned to me that it would be cheaper and more satisfying that I made my own hummus. Sure, but there are limits how far I will go the homemade route. I shop at these favourite food stores in lieu of visiting many different mainstream supermarkets for good prices and fun while browsing different foodstuffs.

Oh yes, I forgot: they are fun cycling destinations while I also get a great work out to haul the goodies homeward.

Cycling For Favourite Foods To Devour at Farmers’ Markets

Peameal bacon sandwich slathered with Dijon mustard. St. Lawrence Market, Toronto 2011. Photo by I. Yee. No comparable sandwich at markets in Vancouver nor Calgary --yet.

I tend to be a goal-oriented cyclist –I have a destination in mind. Sometimes that turnaround point involves food.
 
Now any diet-conscious cyclist would admonish my attitude:  to maintain a healthy weight, do not reward yourself by eating calorie laden food.  True.  The reality is at least a snack at the market, is a fabulous carrot stick motivator for me.  I food shop at markets and often slug along back home with my 10-20 lbs. of food in my bulging bike panniers.

So here are my favourite local ”snacks”  for 3 Canadian cities where I have lived:  Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary.

Toronto: Peameal Bacon Sandwich
When I lived in Toronto, at least once a week I had my peameal bacon sandwich fix with a 

Peak hour morning line-up for Toronto's famed peameal bacon sandwich. St. Lawrence Market, Toronto 2011. Photo by J.Chong. A favourite with some firefighters and cops (see handcuffs).

coffee, from Carousel Bakery at the St. Lawrence Market. This sandwich has put them on the map for local food fare as witnessed by the newspaper and magazine testimonials that are plastered on their signage. Notably, sometimes there are firefighters and cops who also line up for this hearty sandwich (instead of doughnuts).  At least one can justify, it’s low-fat pork.

I have introduced friends and visitors to this food gem, which by the way, is difficult to find in an accessible way, in  Vancouver and Calgary where I lived later on.  For Calgary, a veritable carnivore capital and producer for quality beef, bison and pork, it’s hard to understand this omission.

Granville Island Market, Vancouver BC 2011. Photo by J. Chong.

 Now I have to settle for having this peameal bacon sandwich only whenever I visit Toronto, which is rare now. 

Vancouver, BC:  Apple Focaccia or for Thrifty Foodie, Almond Anise Biscotti
My first exposure to Terra Breads. was at  Vancouver’s Granville Market before I increasingly switched to their bakery outlet on 5th St.—only a 15 min. bike ride away. My favourite item is their apple focaccia.  A mini round focaccia embedded with slices of apple  baked with a very thin caramel-like glaze. Or their red grape bread with pine nuts, which both desserts have inspired me enough to make my own plain dough for a homespun dessert focaccia with raspberries, blueberries, blackberries or grapes.

Apple focaccia. Granville Island Market, Vancouver BC 2011. Photo by J. Chong

 However if I wanted to save money, then it was their handmade almond anise biscotti or chocolate almond biscotti.  Artisanal baking at its best, with no use of shortening and a much lighter hand with sugar.

Calgary: Chocolate Sourdough Bun
At Calgary’s Farmers’ Market on Heritage Drive, I gravitate towards at YUM’s Bakery for their chocolate sourdough bun.  Again, maybe it’s a bit delusional, but the bun genuinely tastes not sweet, very little fat if any and no use of eggs.  This delusion can morph quickly into an addiction for the 

Chocolate sourdough bun --addictive delusion of eating healthier dessert / snack. Calgary Farmers' Market on Heritage Dr. 2011. Photo by J. Chong

next two days if we buy half a dozen or if there are no buns left, we buy a loaf.  Good thing the Market is a good 15 km. bike ride away.

Ah, what would a good bike ride to the market be without a favourite local food delight.

What’s your one favourite food in the city where you live or have lived? 

More Delicious Reading:

Violin-player buskers at St. Lawrence Market, Toronto 2011. Photo by J. Chong

 Chong, J. Growing Up and Cycling Through the Years to Farmers’ Markets.  In Third Wave Cycling Blog.  Dec. 3, 2010. Covers also farmers’ markets in Kitchener-Waterloo, Hawaii, France, Germany and Saltspring Island, BC.

Chong, J.  Kicking up Foccacia (Fruit Focaccia): My Way with Ginger Root and Spices.  In Cycle Write Blog.  Jun. 20, 2011.

Outdoor Art Work as a Thread of National History Across Canada: Monuments to Chinese-Canadian Railway Workers

This gallery contains 8 photos.

In Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, where I have visited and lived, there is outdoor public art which commemorates the historic work by the Chinese Canadian railway workers on Canada’s transcontinental railroad. The Chinese labourers helped build the national Canadian Pacific Railway … Continue reading →