l.a.'s china town dragons

i've often seen these golden dragons protecting the entrance to los angeles' china town, but i had never seen them breathing smoke like this until the other day while on a bike ride.

what's the deal? have they always done this?

photo request #23: train stations

a bird waits for the metro at the china town station along the gold line.

thanks to laurie over at the wonderful glimpses of south pasadena blog for her suggestion that i head out and snap some pictures of our picturesque metro stations.