China Beat Archive

 

Authors

Date of this Version

2010

Document Type

Article

Citation

July 4, 2010 in The China Beat http://www.thechinabeat.org/

Comments

Copyright 2010. Used by permission.

Abstract

Most of the people in Philadelphia this holiday weekend have come for the Fourth of July festivities, such as readings of the Declaration of Independence and tours of Independence Hall. This year, however, a special event was part of the city’s eleven-day “Welcome America!” celebration: on Saturday, July 3, a street fair in Philadelphia’s Chinatown marked not only the 234th birthday of the United States, but also the 140th birthday of the Chinatown neighborhood itself (the district’s founding is dated to the establishment of a laundry at 9th and Race Streets in 1870). The afternoon was filled with musical performances, a lion dance, and ping-pong and mah-jong tournaments, as well as plenty of sidewalk vendors selling water ice and cold drinks to combat the day’s 90-degree temperatures.

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