There’s a lot of debate around Portland’s legendary “Shanghai Tunnels” – what went on in them, where they are, how extensive they are, etc.

The experts may disagree amongst themselves, but you can settle a lot of this debate for yourself.

Next time someone tells you that you’re in a tunnel, look up.

If you see wooden joists, i.e. long, two-inch-wide, 10 or 12 inch deep boards, holding up the floor above you… you’re not in a tunnel. You’re in a basement. And the person telling you this tale is… well, telling you a tale. A tall tale, as they used to say.

If, instead, you see stone, brick, or even concrete – something solid, that can hold up the weight of streetcars, buses, trucks, and the street itself – then you MIGHT be in a tunnel.

As far as what went on inside the room – or tunnel – that you’re in… well, there are histories, and there are “historians.”

Maybe this little video here will help.

By the way, we should probably mention two things:

• We have recently obtained access to exciting new underground areas in one of our Chinatown locations! We’ll be adding it to the tour soon. (You can see for yourself whether it’s a tunnel or a basement.)
• The Underground Portland tour is now running on Thursdays at 10 AM and 2 PM, and Saturdays at 4:30 PM, in addition to our usual Friday thru Saturday 11 AM and 2 PM start times.

Happy discovering!

We’ve added video “virtual tours” to our site for three of our most popular tours!

Click on the images to open the video pages and play. Have fun e-touring!

More big international news rolls Portland’s way.

His Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, will visit Portland as part of the Environmental Summit May 9-11, hosted by Maitripa College.  It will be this Dalai Lama’s second visit to Portland. His Holiness last visited our fair city in 2001.

The Environmental Summit includes three days of enlightening teachings and conversations with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and distinguished leaders of the Pacific Northwest.

Tickets go on sale today. More information, including event and ticket information, can be found on the official website here.

Captain America, Spiderman and Superman were walking down the street. A MAX train comes by…

It must be World Wizard Comic Con 2013 in Portland.

Geeks, nerds, Trekkies and superheroes alike will celebrate the invasion of alternate realities, live-action gaming, celebrity invasions (such as legendary comic creator Stan Lee and Harry Potter’s Tom Felton) and new product releases at the Oregon Convention Center February 22-24. Doors open at 3 PM Friday, 10 AM on subsequent days, and a $30 admission fee gets you in the door. More info at http://www.wizardworlddigital.com/.

Always something fun going on in Portland!

We knew Portland was greener than… well, anywhere. But now, the whole world knows it.

The United Nations Environment Programme has selected Portland to host this year’s North American World Environment Day.

This recognition is the latest in the city’s far-reaching achievements in sustainability, livability and green living.

Activities on World Environment Day will include an exhibition of the International Children’s Painting Competition and an interactive environmental workshop for high school students led by Dr. Mae C. Jemison, the nation’s first female African-American astronaut. A variety of additional public events will lead up to the World Environment Day celebration on June 5.

Here’s more:  https://www.portlandoregon.gov/mayor/article/435051

So you don’t like to be trapped by Hallmark Holidays… but you don’t want to fall into the “careless jerk” category (i.e., not treating your sweetie special on Valentine’s Day). What to do?

Here’s five non-traditional ways to say “I love you”:

1. Tickets to the Portland Jazz Festival, February 15-24. How convenient that it starts the day after V-day!

2. Wurstfest in Mount Angel, February 15 -16 – Did you (or he/she) miss Octoberfest? Portland gives you a second chance to pair up great German sausage and beer.

3. Great Balls of Fire Fundraiser, February 10 – 28. Salvador Molly’s annual fun-raiser has netted over $45,000 for Oregon HEAT, which helps poor folks pay their heating bills. Won’t that just warm your heart? You bet it will. You get to eat some pretty hot stuff at Molly’s along the way. Definitely fun – and it shows what a soft heart you have.

4. How about a movie? Before you start snoring, keep in mind that the Portland International Film Festival is underway (February 7-23) with some great lesser-known and independent filmmakers gracing our area screens. What better way to impress with your incredibly cultured mind?

5. Chocolate Decadence Tour Gift Certificate. While we would love for this to be a tradition for you, the truth is, we limit the size of the tour group. So only about 16 of you can take advantage of this great idea at once. But – a gift certificate allows you to give twice: once on Thursday, when he/she opens the envelope and gives you that oh-you’re-amazing! smile; and then when your darling takes the tour. You are brilliant.

Good old V-day is right around the corner. And you know what that means…

Yes. It means, guys (and gals), you’d better start thinking about what you’re getting your Valentine. Soon.

Whether your Valentine is the same one you’ve had for years, a brand-new love interest or someone you haven’t met yet, you’ll want to think about the one thing that gets his or her heart pumping and feeling loved:

Theobromine.

Or, for the uninitiated:  chocolate. (Theobromine is the chemical in chocolate that makes us feel so wonderful when we eat it… the part that’s not a taste bud covered in yummitude, we mean.)

Not sure what’s the best chocolate to give (or get)?

We’ve got some ideas. Check them out.

Portlanders may protest, but the rankings are in, and … we’re number 2.

So says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

But before you leap to your feet to protest that our big sister city to the north is biased and selfish, take note: Seattle was ranked behind us (again), at number three.

Taking over the top spot is San Diego, California. And they’re doing it by brewing a wide variety of hoppy brews, no less.

Portland Brewers, the gauntlet has been thrown! Get thee to thy kettles and take back this title!

After all… San Diego’s already got the best weather. The least we could do is brew (and drink) the best beer.

In the mid-1970′s, Portland lacked many of the amenities that made for a great city – great art, great theater, great performance art, great transit, great food.

Now it has all of the above.

This Friday, the 2013 Fertile Ground Festival of New Works opens with over 80 shows in dozens of venues all around the city. All brand-new original works from mostly local playwrights will take the stage, featuring the city’s best actors, directors, dancers, musicians and venues.

And you can see it all for $50 – less than the cost of a decent meal.

Like Wordstock, the Oregon Brewer’s Festival and a few other home-grown works of excellence, festivals like Fertile Ground contribute to making Portland more interesting, more cultured, more artistic, more vibrant… in a word, great.

Highly recommended.

And, keep it up, Portland.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was born 84 years ago today.

Words cannot do justice to the man who transformed this nation in the middle decades of the 20th Century.

Except perhaps his own words:

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.”

– King, Martin Luther; Coretta Scott King (2008). The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Second Edition. Newmarket Press. p. 95.

If you take Monday off to celebrate Dr. King, please keep his words – his dream – in mind.