Our Adventure

Another hot and nice day in Seattle. Today is our last day in Seattle, I will miss Seattle but I can't wait until we go to Vancouver!

In our adventure today, we explored some of the open space and public parks in Seattle. We went to international district/ Chinatown again to attend a tour led by Ching, a staff at SCID pda, we explored Seattle central library and we met a youth group called WILD (Wilderness Inner­city Leadership Development).

In the morning, we had a tour of Chinatown and we observed around the neighborhood. We were unable to fully see the full usage of the parks but normally parks and open spaces like canton alleyway host events to engage community members, making the place lively. In the tour we learned about how some of these parks in Chinatown changed over time. The changes are made by the planning processes and the advocates. For Hing Hay Park they had 3 different community meetings because they believe that it is a community park if the people in the community is able and allowed to contribute their ideas to the development and renovation process of the park.  

After Hing Hay park we observed the international children’s park also known as the Dragon Park. The children’s park used to be dangerous because it was blocked by trees and no one can see inside of it. After renovating they were able to make the park safe and welcoming for the children and residents in the area to come play.

In the afternoon we met a youth group called WILD and the youths have a lot of amazing services and events like cooking, outdoor activities: camping and taking seniors to field trips. In addition, WILD youths were the ones that outreached and volunteered in the park community meetings. After a short ice breaker the youths led us over to Danny Woo Community garden. In the Danny Woo park low-income seniors were given a plot of land to garden and manage. We had a lot of fun talking and hanging out with the youths in WILD.

Overall the trip today was fun and eye opening because I learned more about the community they have in Chinatown. The trip today was also very interesting, we had a lot of fun in the Thai restaurant, Song Khang Pong, during lunch because the owner was very sweet and nice to and we were able to help the owner cook ,so our group learned a new Thai recipe! Something memorable today was after lunch at Song Khang Pong we got a free bus ride! (THANK YOU bus driver!) With the things I learnt today and observed today, one open space idea I want to bring back to SF or to my community in Chinatown is gardening in parks because it provides a healthier environment. The community members will also be able to interact with one another while planting more greenery in the neighbor.

-Lisa Yu

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