游走 DC I

Somehow DC has some unspoken charm. Maybe because there are too many iconic landmark over there which signifies this land belongs to United States of America. The legislation, the congress, the white house, the presidency, the independence and various important legacies which were left behind!

Washington, D.C. DC means District of Columbia. It is not a state either. Washington is just like San Diego, the county name. I was so confused. You see, there is Washington State in the west coast, why would this capitol name itself ‘Washington’ with a DC as well! They like to confuse the visitor, hoping to create more traveling opportunities? Hehe… 


Memorial

The National Mall is impressive. It stretches a few miles and what I like about this place is… you will find very few commercial shops here. Or I should say, none. All you can see are memorials and the Smithsonian Museum. One may wonder how do we get food and drink? Well, there are trucks selling food. Yes, hot dog and soda.

DC was first carved out to be the capitol of United States, just like Canberra in Australia. L’Enfant was commissioned to design the layout of the city. It was then during Great depression and having such a urban development plan helps to create more jobs. Smart move uh. The landscape is quite square-ish. Basically the alphabetical street run though from east to west and the number streets run from north to south. The diagonal street are named after the various states except California and forgot which one. DC is split into 4 quadrants, not the typical quadrant but NW, NE, SW, and SE. Every place is relative to the Centro of Capitol Building at the top of Capitol Hill.

The lady of freedom on top of the capitol building is under construction. No building in DC shall be higher than 12 storey. Reason being freedom shall reign in any case. White house. I only get to see white house from far. Due to the Easter reception, tents were built. Heard one need to apply for the permit 6months prior to the visit. Duh. For what? Big deal uh. Hehe… the one unique building which is the treasury building is one of those you would want to recognize. Because it appears on the 10 dollar bill. Then right across the treasury building is the Willard Hotel. Rev Martin Luther King Jr first had spoken there. Fancy and expensive hotel. You can see tai-tai dressing up and there were chauffeurs. Ah well… being atas 

Washington Monument has its interesting history as well. The 50 flags indicates the 50 states in the nation. Then you can see there are 2 shades of stone being used to construct the monuments. It was halted halfway due to the lacking of material and money. Egyptian obelix shape, 551ft tall, 55” as the based. I saw people flying kites over there. 

2012 is also the year the city celebrates 120^th anniversary of cherry tree gift from Japan. Usually end mar through early Apr is the cherry blossom festival. Aw, it was a warm spring thus by the time we got there, the sakura is gone. I do saw a few left. It would be real nice if I get to see the actual blossom. Guess what, in 2011, DC government has issued 70,000 traffic tickets during the cherry blossom season alone. You can imagine how much tourism it brings in every year.

The thousands of cherry blossom trees were located around tidal basic. It provides a great backdrop for Thomas Jefferson memorial photography. Despite the fact not having blooming sakura, it is still scenic. Still is the word I would use to describe.  Jefferson is the 3^rd president of United States of America. He drafted the declaration of Independence, State of Virginia  and he is the father of the university of Virginia.

                         

Lincoln Memorial remember the 16^th president of U.S. You always link slavery to his name. He sits at the center of the memorial and he believes in ‘All man are created equal’. That is the reason why he pursued the dream of having to abolish the slavery doctrines in the country, The picture of Lincoln Memorial is commonly found on a penny coin. Hehe.  

Rev Martin Luther King Jr delivered his ‘I have a dream’ speech at this memorial too.          

                        

There at the vicinity you get to see a lot of war memorial. Vietnam War, Korean War, World War II. It is also quite amazing that how the nation remembers those who fought for the country. In a way it is good. Many names of the walls signifies the price of the freedom. There is no free freedom.  

Korean War Memorial.I like the idea of having the images of the 19 soldiers being reflected on the wall to create an illusion that there were actually 38 of them. Good thought. 



Also, the Vietnamese war memorial is quite debatable too. I only read this piece of information after I got back. Apparently the long wall had all the soldiers name inscribed and when another sculptor placed another piece “the three soldiers’ in the memorial, the wall designer was angry as she feels that it jeopardize the whole design. Ah well. So they tried to put the new sculptures at a reasonable distance so that it minimize the tension.

World war II memorial.  Quite big. It has Pacific and Atlantic on both sides and each pillar represent a state in the nation. Also, the still water and the fountain creates some sort of the contrast. There is a ‘star’ wall, each star represents 1000 soldier. Many had died due to warfare. Sigh.

Across the Potomac river, there are Arlington National Cemetery, Pentagon and Mt Vermont (the residence of the first US president, George Washington). The reason why I visited Arlington National Cemetery is because I want to see the Iwo Jima statue. Apparently you need to walk 1mile to see those. 


The iconic Iwo Jima statues was inspired based on the ‘Raising the flag on Iwo Jima’ photo. I once watched a movie on ‘Letter from Iwo Jima’. That is why I was determined to visit the memorial. Also, I saw Netherland Carillon. It was a gift from Netherland, thanking United States for rendering their help during the war. Sweet. You can see tulips there too.

I took the blue line bus again to peep at Pentagon. Ah, pentagon is 3 storey high. Nothing special. It is the military office. No wonder it was the target back in 2003. Also, photography is prohibited in the compound. Don’t play play. Hehe… there is this pentagon city with some fancy malls. 

The yellow line bus brought us to the national cathedral, embassy street and a upper class hipster neighborhood called Georgetown. The buildings are quite old-fashioned. Gothic? Not too sure.  Oh yes, we passed by the place where the Vice president reside. Hehe.. and one interesting remark that we heard was that… Iraq embassy was the only embassy which as its glasses shielded with the metal strip. Kekek. Mayflower hotel is where Bill Clinton had his famous affair, and Ford theatre was where Lincoln was assassinated. 

   What does Downtown DC offer? I don’t really know. What I know is that DC is basically comprised of museum and federal government bodies. Nothing else. This is not a place for food and shopping paradise. 

I need to continue writing else I would really be forgetting what I have seen.