Landmark
Chinatown
Chinatown, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Hand-joined ceremonial gate of timber and glazed tile, raised without a single nail by artisans from a sister city abroad.
This guide to Chinatown's ceremonial gate in Philadelphia opens with a question posed at Tenth and Arch in the winter of 1983: how do you build a gate that outlasts weather with no nails and no glue? It follows twelve artisans brought from Beijing and Tianjin, fitting ancient timber joinery by hand for three months, and a traditional paint mixed with pig's blood to survive Philadelphia winters. Every glazed tile overhead was fired and shipped from Tianjin, Philadelphia's sister city since 1982.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.