CHINATOWN

New York’s Chinatown is one of the largest enclaves of Chinese immigrants in the western hemisphere. In the 1980s it has even surpassed San Francisco's famous Chinatown. Today, it reaches from Broadway in the west to the Lower East Side in the east, and from Little Italy in the north to Chambers Street in the south.  

The most bustling area is around Canal Street with tons of small shops trying to sell all kind of cheap things to the tourist. Never be satisfied with the price they offer first, and don’t believe you made a bargain when buying a perfume for a cheap price, it is just a bad imitation and doesn’t smell like the original! They also used to sell illegal copies of CDs and DVDs openly on the streets, but since the police is stricter about that today, it now happens more secretly. Chinatown gets more authentic if you head into the side streets and move away from Canal Street, for example in the area around Grand Street or on East Broadway. There you can get the smell of fresh fish, see whole roasted pigs hanging in butcher-shop windows or buy some traditional Chinese herbal medicines. If you want to eat out, there are some great Chinese or Vietnamese restaurants.

On East Broadway, near the Manhattan Bridge, you can catch one of the best deals by boarding the so-called “Chinatown Buses”, the cheapest way to get from New York City to Chinatown of Boston, Philadelphia or Washington D.C.