Back in the days of Chinese civil war one side lost and retreated to the island of Taiwan, while the other side won and stayed on mainland China. After the war, in Taiwan they preserved the old style of writing characters that is complicated but descriptive and symbolic. We will call it the traditional style. In China they changed the characters to make them easier for common folks to learn and write – the simplified style. Here are eight common street trees from northern China with their names and stories.