The Chinese Pagoda is a landmark in Birmingham, England. It is a 40-foot (12 m) granite carving of a Chinese pagoda, carved in Fujian, China and donated to the city by the Wing Yip brothers, founder of a local Chinese supermarket chain, in thanks to the city and its people for providing a home for them and their families and for the city's support over the years. [1] [2]
The pagoda was erected in 1998 and the surrounding area turned into a Feng Shui garden with a large Taijitu embedded in the pavement. [3]
Located in the centre of the Holloway Circus roundabout on the Inner Ring Road, it forms a landmark for the nearby Chinese Quarter of the city and is seen by over 60,000 motorists a day. [4]
Ip Man, also known as Yip Man, was a Hong Kong-based martial artist and a grandmaster of the martial art of Wing Chun when he was 20. He had several students who later became martial arts masters in their own right, the most famous among them being Bruce Lee.
Birmingham New Street, also known as New Street station, is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from London Euston, Preston, Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley via the West Coast Main Line, the CrossCountry network, and for local and suburban services within the West Midlands; this includes those on the Cross-City Line between Lichfield Trent Valley, Redditch and Bromsgrove, and the Chase Line to Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley. The three-letter station code is BHM.
The West Midlands Metro is a light-rail/tram system in the county of West Midlands, England. The network has 33 stops with a total of 14 miles (23 km) of track; it currently consists of a single route, Line 1, which operates between the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton via the towns of Bilston, West Bromwich and Wednesbury, on a mixture of former railway lines and urban on-street running. The system is owned by the public body Transport for West Midlands, and operated by Midland Metro Limited, a company wholly owned by the West Midlands Combined Authority.
The Transport Museum, Wythall is a transport museum just outside Birmingham, at Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcestershire, England. The museum was originally run by the charity The Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Trust (BaMMOT).
Wing Yip is a Chinese supermarket chain founded by Woon Wing Yip in England in 1970. The original Birmingham store now also serves as its headquarters, international trading division, property investments hq, online store, warehouse, and national distribution centre. The company has superstore branches in Manchester, Croydon and Cricklewood.
The Westside is a district of the city centre of Birmingham, England, which includes many new and planned buildings such as The Cube, Library of Birmingham, Ikon Gallery, Trident House and Regal Tower.
Ip Chun, also known as Yip Chun or Yip Jun, is a Chinese martial artist and actor in the style of Wing Chun. He is the elder of two sons. Chun's father, Ip Man was the Wing Chun teacher of Bruce Lee.
A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa; a monument to inspire peace, designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds, and to help unite them in their search for world peace. Most, though not all, peace pagodas built since World War II have been built under the guidance of Nichidatsu Fujii (1885–1985), a Buddhist monk from Japan and founder of the Nipponzan-Myōhōji Buddhist Order. Fujii was greatly inspired by his meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in 1931 and decided to devote his life to promoting non-violence. In 1947, he began constructing Peace Pagodas as shrines to world peace. The first was inaugurated at Kumamoto in 1954.
Nechells is a district ward in central Birmingham, England, whose population in 2011 was 33,957. It is also a ward within the formal district of Ladywood. Nechells local government ward includes areas, for example parts of Birmingham city centre, which are not part of the historic district of Nechells as such, now often referred to in policy documents as "North Nechells, Bloomsbury and Duddeston".
The Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England is located in the city centre's Southside. It is an area with a predominantly Chinese influence as a result of a concentration of Chinese owned businesses, organisations and social clubs. The area now covers a neighbourhood that includes Hurst Street, Ladywell Walk and Pershore Street.
Stratford-upon-Avon railway station is the southern terminus of the North Warwickshire Line and Leamington-Stratford line, serving the market town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. The station is served by West Midlands Trains (WMT) and Chiltern Railways.
Birmingham Corporation Tramways operated a network of tramways in Birmingham from 1904 until 1953. It was the largest narrow-gauge tramway network in the UK, and was built to a gauge of 3 ft 6 in. It was the fourth largest tramway network in the UK behind London, Glasgow and Manchester.
The Wheel of Birmingham or Birmingham Wheel was a series of transportable Ferris wheel installations at Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. These have been landmarks in central Birmingham, visible from many parts of the city. The first opened on 6 November 2003, and its replacement opened on 21 October 2004, both being 60 metres (197 ft) tall.
Coleshill Parkway is a railway station at Hams Hall on the Birmingham to Peterborough railway line, serving Coleshill in Warwickshire, England. Sitting on the site of the former Coleshill station which closed in 1968, the current station was opened in 2007. Unusually it is not owned by Network Rail. It is managed by West Midlands Trains train operating company (TOC) although all rail services are operated by CrossCountry.
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in Britain – commonly referred to as the second city of the United Kingdom – with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper. Birmingham borders the Black Country to its west and together with its city of Wolverhampton and towns including Dudley and Solihull to the south-east, forms the West Midlands conurbation. The wider metropolitan area has a population of 4.3 million, making it the largest outside of London.
Birmingham city centre, also known as Central Birmingham, is the central business district of Birmingham, England. The area was historically in Warwickshire. Following the removal of the Inner Ring Road, the city centre is now defined as being the area within the Middle Ring Road. The city centre is undergoing massive redevelopment with the Big City Plan, which means there are now nine emerging districts and the city centre is approximately five times bigger.
Westover is a city in Shelby County, Alabama, United States. The city is part of the Birmingham Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city was officially incorporated on January 31, 2001 although it was established in 1901 and had a population of 961 when it was incorporated in 2001.
Woon Wing Yip OBE is a Hong Kong-born British entrepreneur, best known for having started the Wing Yip supermarket chain.
Birmingham Interchange is a planned High Speed 2 railway station in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England, expected to open in 2026.
The Chamberlain Clock is an Edwardian, cast-iron, clock tower in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham, England. It was erected in 1903 to mark Joseph Chamberlain's tour of South Africa between 26 December 1902 and 25 February 1903, after the end of the Second Boer War. The clock was unveiled during Chamberlain's lifetime, in January 1904 by Mary Crowninshield Endicott, Joseph Chamberlain's third wife.