The Fittest City in the U.S.

The American Fitness Index (AFI) recently released the ACSM American Fitness Index Data Report, offering a scientific snapshot of the health and fitness level for the major metropolitan areas in the US. Washington D.C., for the 3rd year in a row, ranks as the fittest city.

The American College of Sports Medicine and the Anthem Foundation have considered such factors as what percentage of the city's population reporting exercising within the past 30 days and accessibility to parks and green spaces, in order to determine how fit a city is. The top 10 cities are:

1. Washington D.C.
2. Minneapolis, MN
3. Denver, CO
4. Portland, OR
5. San Francisco, CA
6. Seattle, WA
7. Boston, MA
8. Salt Lake City, UT
9. Hartford, CT
10. San Diego, CA

Las Vegas ranks 41st among the bottom 10 cities.

Postcard US-3971221 to Germany shows a black and white map drawing of the D.C. area with a matching diamond shaped 37¢ commemorative stamp issued by USPS on September 23, 2003.

Campus Map of Peking University

In celebration of the Homecoming Day for Peking University's alumni, and the 118th university's anniversary, today's featured postcard was a private swap from China, showing a hand-painted campus map of Peking University (北京大学) on a shaped card. Found in 1898, it is a major Chinese research university located near the Summer Palace in Beijing.

The university moved to the current site in 1952, the former campus of Yenching University, It was the site of royal imperial gardens in the Qing Dynasty. On the map, you can see many historical structures such as the West Gate, beautiful natural landscape such as the Weiming Lake, as well as the academic buildings such as the library.

Obama Visits South Dakota: Been to All 50 States as President

Delivering the commencement address at Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown, South Dakota earlier today, Obama became the fourth president to have been to all 50 states in the U.S.

Richard Nixon was the first president who has visited all the states within his first three years in the White House. President Bill Clinton had not made to his last state Nebraska until his final weeks in office. While George H.W. Bush managed to visit all 50 states in his only term, his son G.W. Bush ended his two-term presidency and had never visited Vermont where a tiny town Brattleboro with just 12,000 residents had voted “to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution.”

Postcard US-2143742 from South Dakota shows a map card of South Dakota with a a tag line "The Mount Rushmore State". President Obama told the White House Press Corps that he used an Executive Order to immediately add his own face on Mount Rushmore. Of course, Republicans are trying to stop the Executive Order.

South Carolina Low Country

Postcard US-3263845 from Pennsylvania shows live oak trees that form a canopy over the quiet back roads of the Low Country. Some branches are horizontal and can grow out 40 to 60 feet or 12 to 18 meters. The trees are called live oaks because they stay green all winter.

The sender have driven to all 48 continental states in the U.S. That reminds me an article on  How to Really Drive Across the U.S. Hitting Major Landmarks. I need to put that idea on my bucket list.

Wasserburg am Inn, Germany

Postcard DE-3983228 from Germany shows a map of Wasserburg am Inn, a town of 12,000 in Rosenheim district in Upper Bavaria, Germany.

Wasserburg am Inn is one of the most historic towns of Old Bavaria – somewhat older than Munich. It was claimed to be first mentioned in a document  in 1137 while Munich first appeared in historical records in 1158. because it's location at the junction of the main overland route with the main water route, Wasserburg am Inn was the most important trade hub with the Balkans, Austria and Italy. Its bridge was the only crossing of the River Inn for 30 km in both directions. In the early days, salt produced in Berchtesgaden or in the Saline (saltern) at Bad Reichenhall was transported from there by cart to be loaded on ships travelling on the Inn River.

The historic center is seen on a peninsula formed by the meandering Inn River. Many symbolized buildings on the map are Medieval structures that remain intact.

Go Buckeyes

Unfazed by freezing weather, 45,000 Ohio State University football fans celebrated the Buckeyes' national championship at Ohio Stadium yesterday.

The event honored the Buckeyes’ victory in the inaugural College Football Playoff (CFP), a postseason tournament in American college football for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which started in the 2014–2015 season.  Using a 13-member committee to select and seed the participating teams, CFP is different from the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) used by FBS from 1998 to 2013. BCS used computer rankings and coach polls that sometimes, e.g. in the 2003 and 2004 seasons, caused controversy.

Never give up. Ohio State Buckeyes was only 16th in the first CFP rankings. However, they managed to bulldozed Wisconsin Badgers 59-0, which allowed them to bypass Texas Christian University (TCU) Horned Frogs and Baylor Bears for a final playoff spot. Then they went ahead to beat the odds by overcoming a 21-6 deficit and upsetting Alabama Crimson Tide with a 42-35 win. In the showdown with No. 2 ranking Oregon Ducks on January 12, 2015 at AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX, the Buckeyes won decisively 42-20, despite Heisman-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota scored early during their first drive.

It is the first national title since 2002 for the Buckeyes. Previously, they did have three BCS championships under their belt. It is also the third national title for coach Urban Meyer who won BCS championships twice when he was the head coach for Florida Gators.

Postcard US-1844593 to the Netherlands shows a map of The Oval at the Ohio State University campus. However, North is on the right side, and West is on top of the postcard. Ohio Stadium, northwest to The Oval, would be on the upper right of the postcard.

Discovering North America

522 years ago, Christopher Columbus reached the Americas on October 12, 1492. The landing has been celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States as a Federal Holiday since 1934. It has been fixed to the second Monday in October since 1970 as a result of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

However, Columbus Day has met with a long history of opposition. As a blog article in the Washington Post pointed out, Columbus did not really discover North America, because he never set foot in North America but on various Caribbean islands. More importantly, his brutal ruling at the Caribbean islands where he landed resulted in atrocities against native peoples on the islands. It was a prelude to the indigenous population collapse during the European colonization of the American continents that followed Columbus' "discovery". 

Therefore today people are celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day in Berkeley, California; Native American Day in  South Dakota; a combined Columbus Day and American Indian Heritage Day in Alabama; and Discovery Day in Hawaii and the Bahamas.

Postcard US-2849020 to Philippines shows a map of Native Tribes of North America. 

German Unity Day

Today is the German Unity Day (Tag der Deutschen Einheit), the national day of Germany. Celebrated on October 3 every year, it is a public holiday that commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990. The reunification process started as the Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989, and was formally completed on October 3, 1990. The German Unity Day, the national holiday of the Federal Republic of Germany, had been previously celebrated on June 17 since 1954. It was celebrated twice in 1990, once on June 17, 1990 and the other on October 3, 1990.

Postcard DE-1272658  was a lenticular 3D postcard. When viewing from different angles, it shows the reunified Germany by Day or by Night from space. It was also the first official PostCrossing postcard I received from Germany.

Greetings from Connecticut

Postcard US-2928994 was a "Greetings from Connecticut" map card. Connecticut is the southernmost state in New England, with the city of Hartford as the capital. The state is named after the Connecticut River, seen on the map that approximately bisects the state, meaning in the Algonquian languages, a sub-family of Native American languages, for "long tidal river."

According to Wikipedia, Connecticut is the third smallest state by area, the 29th most populous, and the fourth most densely populated of the 50 United States. It was initially settled by Dutch settlers in present-day Hartford area. Then the first major settlements were established in the 1630s by England, which eventually led to one of the 13 Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution.

It was the 5th State admitted into the Union on January 9, 1788. (In comparison, Nevada joined the U.S. as the 36th State on October 31, 1864.) The State Flower is Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia), and the State Bird is American Robin (Turdus migratorius), as seen on the card.

Battle Born

In this Independence Day on the 4th of July, CNN Interactive is showcasing a natural wonder in each of the 50 states. CNN's choice of amazing natural wonder in Nevada is the Valley of Fire State Park, USPS also issued a Nevada Statehood Forever Commemorative stamp on May 29, 2014, featuring a view in the Valley of Fire State Park, to celebrates the 150th anniversary of Nevada Statehood.

When President Abraham Lincoln needed another Republican state to help support his anti-slavery policies in Congress, people in Nevada answered the call and voted to join the Union, even the population in Nevada back then was not big enough to form a state. Nevada was admitted to the Union in 1864, during the Civil War. Hence the words “Battle Born” have appeared on the Nevada state flag since.

The postcard was made by VistaPrint with one of my photos taken on November 27, 2011.

#CNN50spots

From Los Angeles to Chicago

Postcard US-2738798 to the Netherlands shows a map of Route 66 from Los Angeles to Chicago. Also known as the Will Rogers Highway or the Main Street of America, U.S. Route 66 was one of the original highways within the U.S. Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926 with road signs up the following year, originally ran from Santa Monica, California, through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, to Chicago in a distance of 2,448 miles or 3,940 kilometers.

According to Wikipedia, Route 66 served as a major path for those who migrated west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. It was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985 after it had been entirely replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name "Historic Route 66". Several states have adopted significant bypassed sections of the former US 66 into the state road network as State Route 66.

The map was originally created in 1956 with inserts showing such famous scenes along the route as Joshua Tree Forest, Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, Indian War Dance, Will Rogers Monument and the Mississippi River. The postcard is available for purchase at Zazzle.

Shaped Card from Bulgaria

Shaped postcard BG-33614 came from Plovdiv, the 2nd largest city in Bulgaria and a candidate for European Capital of Culture in 2019.

Bulgaria, Europe's 14th largest country, is located in Southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. On the card, it shows major topographical features such as the Danubian Plain, the Balkan Mountains, the Thracian Plain, and the Rhodope Mountains.

The Heritage in Negeri Sembilan

Postcard from Malaysia shows "the Heritage in Negeri Sembilan." Negeri Sembilan, one of Malaysia's thirteen states, is located on the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia just south of Kuala Lumpur. Its heritage is believed to be heavily influenced by the Minangkabau people who were originally from West Sumatra in present-day Indonesia. Minangkabau features are visible on the card in traditional architecture and local artifacts.

On an unrelated note, news related to Malaysia has focused on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, missing since March 8, 2014. DigitalGlobe, an earth-imagery company, deployed its FirstLook service and directed two of its five satellites to obtained photos of more than 1,200 square miles of suspected crash area, and opened  its crowdsourcing platform, Tomnod, to the public for help in identifying any visible evidence that could help locate the missing Boeing 777 aircraft.

I was assigned this map, did you see anything? However, CNN recently reports that Malaysian plane may have flown long after last contact, which would place the plane outside the initial search area.

Map of West Virginia

Postcard US-2643270 from West Virginia shows a map of the West Virginia in the Appalachian region, noted for its mountains and wildlife, as well as various activities such as coal mining, recreational caving, skiing, whitewater rafting, fishing, hiking, and hunting. It is the 41st largest state by area and the 38th by population of the 50 States in the U.S. The state capital is Charleston, also the largest city in the state.

In history, West Virginia was part of Virginia until those fifty northwestern counties of Virginia decided to secede from Virginia. It was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863. West Virginia was one of the only two states formed during the American Civil War. Nevada was the other state that separated from Utah.

Maps are also great tools to help protect environment and human health. During a chemical spill in West Virginia on January 9, 2014 that had left thousands in Charleston and surrounding counties without drinking water, The Waterkeeper Alliance quickly developed an online map to illustrate the impact of 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol spill on the Elk River just upriver from a West Virginia American Water facility.

As West Virginia is bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the north, and Maryland to the northeast, any emergency event has the potential to impact other states. In this case, Cincinnati in Ohio had stopped using water from Ohio River as chemicals from West Virginia Spill was moving downstream. There was another separate chemical spill in West Virginia on February 11, 2014. It shows the continuing challenges that West Virginia faces to preserve its traditional mining and logging industries while striving to protect its citizens and environment. New technologies including mapping might just provide the much needed help.

Austin, Texas

Postcard US-2628163 to Japan shows a fun map of Austin, the capital of Texas, designed by FunGraphix.  It is the 11th-largest city in the U.S. and the fourth-largest city in the state of Texas, and home to the University of Texas at Austin.

Austin hosts South by Southwest (SXSW), a cluster of festivals of film, interactive media, and music, and technical conferences every year in spring. It will run from March 7 to March 16 in 2014.

Map of Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia

Postcard RU-2308129, sent on the New Year's Day from Russia, shows a map of Krasnoyarsk, the third largest city in Siberia, Russia, after Novosibirsk and Omsk. It had  a population of  almost 1 million in 2010. Located on the Yenisei River. it is an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway that connects Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan, with branch lines going into Mongolia, China and North Korea.

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Reno, Nevada

US-2262734 to Germany shows a map of Reno in the northwestern part of Nevada. Reno is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The city is located in a high desert valley at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, 65 kilometers or 40 miles away from Lake Tahoe. It is known as "The Biggest Little City in the World", I was in Reno from November 7 to November 10, 2004 to attend the 2004 URISA annual conference.

A Collage of Texas Icons

I received this postcard today as a private swap from Texas, showing a collage of Texas icons. There are a lot of chili peppers, Tex-Mex food, cowboy hat and boots, Texas map and flag, and a rattle snake! The author is Mark Miselnicky, a local Dallas artist.

For more Texas icons, check out Ways to be Texan.

California Natural Wonders

Postcard US-2380934 from my neighboring state - sunny California features many treasures of its natural resources. I was fortunate to visit Lake Tahoe, the Yosemite National Park, the Joshua Tree National Monument, and many famous beaches. Death Valley has been on my to-go list for a while.

Map of Fiji

Map of the Republic of Fiji

I was assigned a PostCrossing recipient who wish to receive a map of Fiji that is available at Zazzle.com. Therefore I went ahead to place an order and sent it to Poland as US-2312780. I hope he wouldn't mind it was not mailed from Fiji. Internet commerce allows us to obtain goods that we have to travel there to buy in the past. In the case of postcards, I am sure it's a blessing or a curse. Anyway, I bought it because I like it myself, and it's unlikely I would travel there or get a postcard from Fiji soon. There are only seven PostCrossing users in Fiji.