Tunnels under Chinatown: racist or reality?

by Neil Woodburn on

There’s nothing more enthralling than discovering hidden tunnels and secret passageways, especially if you’re an archeologist. Likewise for tourists, sometimes the most exciting part of a city is what lies beneath it.

And that’s why everyone is so excited in the California town of Fresno where a team of archeologists are currently hot on the trail of an urban legend: underground Chinatown. It has been rumored for years that an extensive network of tunnels used to exist under this part of Fresno, extensive enough that residents could travel the entire length of Chinatown without ever surfacing.

After a recent discovery of a crawlspace in one of the basements, the city is finally taking the rumors seriously and has hired engineers and archeologists to probe the area with ground-penetrating radar. If this legendary network of tunnels is ever found, you can expect a very cool tourist attraction to be added to a town that is normally just a stopping point for gas on the way to the Sierras.

What I found truly fascinating from the LA Times article which covered this story, is that rumors of tunnels under any city’s Chinatown are actually quite common and, in fact, very racist. Activists claim that tunnel rumors stretch back to the late 19th century when xenophobic westerners viewed the Chinese railway workers as mysterious, secretive, and undoubtedly engaged in bizarre, vice-filled activities that were hidden from public view underneath the street of the city.

Fascinating!

Underground New York

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s been awhile since I’ve directed a post downwards, beneath the surface of the earth where few venture yet rewards are bountiful.

And so today, we take you on a journey beneath the state of New York thanks to Undercity.org–an impressive Urban Exploration site managed by a photographer based out of Queens, New York who has captured a number of very cool underground locations and deserted urban spaces.

“When you’re looking at these photos,” he tells visitors to the site, “remind yourself that in addition to the city you see around you, there’s another city that you only see hints of — a city of interconnected tunnels and inaccessible rooftops, of steam and sewer and water pipes, a city of century-old abandoned subway stations and forgotten foundations of buildings and bright graffiti paintings, all overlaid with the rich stories of the millions of lives that have all added their own threads to the fabric of the city.”

Very nicely said!

Now take a moment and check out the photo galleries of sewer tunnels, grain silos, aqueducts, abandoned subways, old hospitals, and more. You can thank me later for providing inspiration for your next three-day weekend.

Urban Exploring Tunnels Behind Niagara Falls

by Dave Luna on

Hundreds of years ago, people marched across continents and sailed over oceans to see what could be seen. Then, it seemed for a while that we ran out of new places to go. C’est la vie. Well, the advent of urban exploration brought “unseen or off-limits places” into the spotlight and anything old turned new again. Urban explorers sneak into areas like subway tunnels, catacombs, and storm drains to discover wonders usually hidden from human eyes.

Three pseudonymous urbexers known only as JonDoe, Stoop, and dsankt ventured into the depths of a hydro-electric power station to probe tailrace tunnels behind Niagara Falls. Dsankt chronicled the infiltration, and shared his take on the adventure with great flair. Their mission was hardly legal, so I cannot condone the troika’s actions. However, the expedition produced an amazing payoff with sights probably unseen for decades.

If you’re not up to reading the text, you should at least check out dsankt and Stoop’s gorgeous photographs. The stills really give you an excellent idea of how dangerous — yet inspiring — urban exploring can be.

(Thanks for the tip, Mike!)