Last week saw the official groundbreaking ceremony for the new Chinatown royal arch. In the photo above, Grace Xin of the Chinatown BIA puts incense into a holder. From left to right, Senator Vivian Po, John Baird, Bob Chiarelli, Yasir Naqvi, Chinese Ambassador, Councilors Holmes and Wilkinson.
Shown below are two of the first concrete castings made for the arch. The casting yard is on Cambridge, behind the Yangtze.
Stone lions, to guard the base of the arch, from China.
As a lot will be happening at this gateway site, I have set up a separate blog site to follow the Arch: http://www.ottawachinatownroyalarch.blogspot.com/. It has a RSS button at the top of its page, so you can elect to have the new posts sent directly to you.
I anticipate there will be only one or two posts per week. At quiet times, there will be picture posts of arches in other world cities. I have found about 20 such pictures thus far.
You are unlikely to ever experience another royal arch construction in your lifetime, so be sure to pop over to Chinatown to inspect the progress, and follow the blog postings when you cannot be there. If you send me photos, I will try to use them: mailto:EricDarwin1@gmail%20(dot)%20com.