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.

I ♥ Kraków

Postcard PL-1034007 was a shaped card showing the Renaissance Cloth Hall at the Main Square in the Old Town of Kraków, Poland.

Located on the Vistula River, Kraków is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland, dating back to the 7th century. Historically an early trade center and once the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1569, it is one of the most important Polish academic, cultural, and artistic centers and  economic hubs, with 8 million people living within 100 kilometers or 62 miles of the city center.

At 40,000 square meters or 430,000 square feet, its Main Square is the largest medieval town square in Europe, also one of the best public spaces in Europe due to its lively street life, surrounded by historic townhouses, palaces and churches. Rebuilt in 1555 in the Renaissance style, the Cloth Hall is the dominated feature of the Main Square as one of the city's most recognizable icons. Once a meeting place for traveling merchants who met there to discuss business and to barter, the Cloth Hall is still used as a center of commerce. As a culture venue, it has received many distinguished guests and dignitaries, hosted receptions and performances, and housed the Sukiennice Museum division of the National Museum on its upper floor.

The Kraków Old Town was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978.

Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston

Postcard US-3230012 from Boston was a shaped card showing Faneuil Hall Marketplace near the waterfront and today's Government Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Built in 1743, it has been served as a marketplace and a meeting hall since. Because its significance in history as the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain, it is known as "the Cradle of Liberty." Faneuil Hall was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1960. One of those famous stops on the Freedom Trail, Faneuil Hall Marketplace is part of Boston National Historical Park that was added to National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade made history today as two LGBT groups marched for the first time after decades of opposition. In 1995, the parade organizers took its battle to exclude LGBT groups to the U.S. Supreme Court and won on First Amendment grounds. Boston’s mayors had boycotted the event since. With an inclusive parade this year, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and other political leaders such as first-term U.S. Representative Seth Moulton took part.

Boston broken another record today after receiving 2.9-inch snow by Sunday evening. A seasonal total of 108.6 inches so far, it has broken Boston’s old record of 107.6 inches since the winter of 1995-96. The buildup of previous snow on side streets even caused the organizers of the St. Patrick's Day Parade, billed as the second largest in the U.S. in terms of spectators, to shorten the route.

#MakeSomeoneHappy

The Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens is partnering with Coca-Cola on Toys for Tots holiday gift drive. For each photo shared on social media with the #BellagioHoliday and #MakeSomeoneHappy hashtags, Coca-cola will donate one dollar to the charity campaign until the total amount reaches $50,000.

#BellagioHoliday, the mother polar bear and the three cubs are made of 37,000 carnations, #MakeSomeoneHappy

Postcard US-2615455 to Indiana was a polar bear shaped card bought at the Everything Coca-Cola Store on Las Vegas Boulevard.

The Sounds of AHH

Postcard US-2205897 to the Netherlands was one of the several shaped cards that I bought at the "Everything Coca-Cola" specialty store in Las Vegas. Today I came cross a 2014 Coca-Cola "The Sounds of AHH" commercial by Kurt Schneider, Max Schneider, Zendaya, and Kina Grannis, singing the cover of Capital Cities' "Safe and Sound" and using the coke bottles and glasses as instruments.

I could lift you up
I could show you what you wanna see
And take you where you wanna be
You could be my luck
Even if the sky is falling down
I know that we'll be safe and sound

Windmill Shaped Card from Holland

Windmill shaped postcard NL-2427110 from the Netherlands is perfect for marking the end of April as the spring season is on its full swing.  Locally, flowers are in full bloom at the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens in Las Vegas. You can find Mr. & Ms. Green Thumb there for gardening tips daily in the morning from 10:30 am to 11:30 am. The Spring Celebration will continue through May 11, 2014 with live musical performances from 5 pm to 6 pm.

Beers Over Equality

St. Patrick's Day is a cultural and religious holiday that celebrates the death date of the most commonly-recognized patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick on March 17. While the festivals are underway this Sunday, Guinness became the third beer company to withdraw sponsorship of a major St. Patrick's Day parade in the U.S. because the organizers banned LGBT groups from openly participating in the parades.

Earlier, according to Boston.com, Boston Beer Company, which manufactures Sam Adams, announced on March 14 to pull out today's parade in Boston after South End restaurant Club Cafe said that it would no longer serve Sam Adams due to the brewer's sponsorship with the parade. Boston's Irish-American Mayor Martin Walsh skipped his city's St. Patrick's Day parade after failing to broke a deal with organizers to allow a group of gay and lesbian activists to march openly.

In New York City, Heineken ended its relationship with the 250-year old parade for the same reason; and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will not be marching in the parade on Monday, March 17 to protest the exclusionary policies, becoming the first mayor in decades to break the tradition.

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.

Double Ten Day

October 10 is the Double Ten Day that celebrates outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising in Hubei Province, China in 1911. It began with the local dissatisfaction about the nationalization of railway lines, and soon became a crisis and escalated to an uprising that ended the Qing Dynasty and ushered in the Republic of China (ROC) in 1912. Following the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party of China took full control of mainland China and founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The ROC relocated its government to Taiwan and continued to recognize the Double Ten Day as the National Day of ROC,

The island of Taiwan, formerly known as "Formosa", was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines until the Dutch settlement during the Age of Discovery in the 17th century, when ethnic Chinese began immigrating to the island. The shaped postcard, showing a historical map of Taiwan around that time, was one of my earliest postcard collections. It was acquired when I was in Taipei to attend a joint conference GIS AM/FM Asia'97 & GeoInformatics'97: Mapping the Future of Asia Pacific. held from May 26 to May 29 in 1997. It was mailed back to the US and had a postmark dated on June 3, 1997.

 

54th Anniversay of Alaska Statehood

Glacier in Alaska

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act on July 7, 1958. It led to Alaska's admission into the Union on January 3, 1959, becoming the 49th State. Juneau, the territorial capital, was formally recognized as the state capital, and William A. Egan was sworn in as the first governor.

These shaped cards were purchased in 2003 when I attended the ASPRS annual conference in Anchorage. The glacier shaped card has been sent to Taiwan.

The Polar Bears are the Cutest