Author: Ms. R.

From meat cleavers to woks to solid wood chopping boards and bamboo steamers, Shanghai Street, in Kowloon, sells it all. It’s Hong Kong’s go-to street for kitchen supplies, and one of the strip’s most legendary stores is Chan Chi Kee Cutlery Co. The current owner claims that the shop was started by his grandfather “Before WWII.” As the name indicates, the brand was originally known for its knives and cleavers. Until the ‘90s, they were made in Hong Kong…….

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Just south of the historic center of Hirosaki is a unique street that seems to slip off the regular tourist radar. Zenringai (or Zenrin sanjūsan-ka-ji), which translates to the “forest of Zen temples,” is just what its name suggests: an avenue with 33 Japanese Buddhist temples, all part of the Sōtō school of Zen. While temple towns abound across Japan, it is rare for Buddhist temples of a single sect to be condensed in one neighborhood like this. It started……

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This rest stop in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, located off Green Bay Road, contains one of the Midwest’s best hidden gems: the Comic Sans Bathrooms. Both men’s and women’s bathrooms are adorned with yellow-gold walls and stalls on which you will find a wide variety of center-aligned quotes at haphazard angles. The text selections range in genre; there are inspirational quotes, tokens of sage advice, and tongue-in-cheek witticisms that would be equally at home on Homegoods wall hangings. Regardless of……

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It’s not hard to find dim sum in Hong Kong, but finding the type of traditional place you have likely pictured in your mind is getting difficult these days.Ling Heung is thought to be Hong Kong’s oldest dim sum house. The restaurant can trace its roots back to mainland China in the late 19th century, and has been at its current location since 1996.  Walk upstairs to a brightly-lit, noisy hall filled with round tables; you’ll most likely be……

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In contrast to the grandiose cathedrals in other parts of Europe, this “cathedral”—it lost that title in 1828—in the coastal island village of Nin measures just 7.8 meters long, 7.6 meters wide, and 8.2 meters high in its bare interior. Visitors will likely be surprised that, for centuries, such a small rural settlement—which is sleepy outside the tourist season—had a bishop and cathedral at all. But in fact, Nin was once one of the most important cities in the……

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The old Lancaster County courthouse in South Carolina was constructed in 1828 and used as a courthouse for most of the last two centuries. Active use stopped due to an arsonist’s attempt to demolish the building in 2008. The building was subsequently restored in 2011 and is now the Lancaster History Museum. The design for the courthouse has been attributed to Robert Mills, a prominent early American architect, and for this reason the structure was designated as a national……

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Webb Military Museum isn’t your typical museum, but rather, a privately owned collection of combat memorabilia and personal belongings curated over decades. The museum is a Savannah institution that marches to its own cadence, uniquely archiving military history by showcasing the experiences of people who experienced it firsthand. Spanning thousands of personal artifacts tightly packed into a 2,500-square-meter converted shopfront, the museum houses a diverse array of personal effects, such as diaries, letters, and uniforms. Principal artifacts include a……

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Exploring the remnants of the former Brownsville General Hospital was a terrifying experience, even for me. It wasn’t just that the building was creepy, although it certainly was: full of long rooms lined with rusting hospital beds covered with chunks of paint and plaster, it felt like the real-world embodiment of every haunted place in a horror movie. Though I don’t put much stock in the supernatural, that doesn’t mean I’m immune to my imagination or the nagging suspicions……

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