A Jaunt Through Chinatown in New York City

There are a few "chinatowns" in New York City.  By that I mean areas where there is a sizable Chinese community, like Sunset Park in Brooklyn and Flushing in Queens.  However, there is only one original Chinatown in Lower Manhattan.  The others are fairly recently but the one in Manhattan has probably been around for at least a hundred years.  Like most Chinatowns in the United States, they are settled after the California Gold Rush and the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon Territoritories in Canada.  When word got out that gold was to be found in those places, people came from all over the world, not just the Chinese.  In fact, sometimes Chinese still call America "Gold Mountain" (金山) and San Francisco, "Old Gold Mountain" (舊金山).

After the gold rush died down, some went to work on the railroads.  The Chinese are known to be hard-working and with a lot of endurance.  They built the western part of the Transcontinental Railroad, connecting the eastern part to form the first US Transcontinental Railroad.  After completion of the transcontinental railroad, ceremoniously driven with a Golden Spike in 1869, the Chinese dispersed to different parts of the country, working various jobs to survive.  Some continue in mining, some open businesses like laundry and restaurants, some even went to pick cotton in the south.  They migrated to different parts of the country.  On the east coast you find Chinatowns in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, DC.  Mostly they find themselves in major cities and established their own communities, commonly known as Chinatowns.

Because the Chinese were so hardworking, there was a lot of anti-Chinese sentiments and violence against them.  In 1882 the US Government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.  This law prohibit the immigration of Chinese labor into the United State.  It was not repealed until 1945 when the US needed an ally in Asia to fight against the Japanese in World World II.  

There are two ways that I can go to Chinatown from the Upper West Side of Manhattan, depending on what I want to do where I get there:  eat, buy groceries, or get a haircut.  Many who are not familiar with Manhattan's Chinatown (MCT) think that it's only one or two streets:  Canal and Mott.  For me, it covers a big area.  If I want to go to the west side, I will take a train to Times Square and change to the yellow N, Q, R, or W trains.  I will get off at Canal Street and walk a few blocks to the heart of Chinatown.

If I want to start on the east side, I will go to Columbus Circle and 59th St and take the orange B or D train and get off at the Grand Street Station.  In this area Chinese businesses are growing and spreading almost to the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  Many Chinatowns in the US are dying, like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, etc.  Older Chinese are dwindling and younger Chinese do not want to leave in those areas.  However, recent immigrants from the northern part of China, find these Chinatown a great place to start a business, and still able to communicate in Chinese.  They mostly speak Mandarin, as opposed to the earliest Chinese who speak the Toisan dialect, followed by later immigrants who speak Cantonese.  Within the area you can get by by speaking only Cantonese or Mandarin.

I have not explored much of the area east of the Grand Street Station but during the few times I have ventured beyond this boundary I found new Chinese businesses mixed with traditional old American businesses like bars and other small businesses.

Today we are starting on the west side.  Assuming I have taken one of the yellow-colored trains:  N, Q, R or W.  I get off at the Canal Street Station and here are the things I see as I walk in a sort of south-easterly direction towards Mott Street.

One of the exits at Canal Street Station

A souvenir shop 

Sellers selling all types of fake goods and souvenirs

Street sellers selling fake goods

Restaurant with hanging roast duck and roast pork

Souvenir shop

A tourist Information Booth

A Shop specializing in Seafood

A large variety of Seafood

Street fruit sellers along Canal and all over Chinatown

Guava

Rambutan, a tropical fruit

Longan or "Dragon Eyes"

Sugar-cane

Persimmons are in season.  Very popular with Asians

An ice-cream shop for tourists and younger folks

Now I am getting ready to turn into Mott Street, the "main street" of Chinatown.  Before Mott street is Mulberry.  If I had cross over Canal Street, I'd have been in Little Italy.

Intersection of Canal and Mott Streets

A View down Mott Street

A mini-mart, convenience store for tourists

A Tea Shop

Big Wong, a restaurant that has been here a long time

Postcards at another souvenir shop

Shop shuttered shops

A Cafe for younger residents and tourists

Now I turn left into Pell Street.  Here you find a few restaurants and hair salons.  From what I heard, the hair salons charge much less than those outside of Chinatown.  I don't know if they cater only to Asian customers but they are beauticians are mostly Asians.

A Beauty Salon

Another Beauty Salon

A Fight Club, maybe a kung-fu gym?

Next, I turn into Doyers Street, where I come to every time I visit NYC.  Why?  Because that's where my barber is.  In other parts of New York City, you pay $35 for a man's haircut.  In Phoenix, I pay $25.  Here I pay only $8 plus tips.  That's an incredible price difference.  That's why I always schedule my hair-cut whenever I come to NYC.

Price List

My Barber, Mr. Lee

Doyers Street is a very short street.  During the pandemic they closed off the street to vehicular traffic.  The restaurants on this street start putting out tables for their customers.  One of the best known is Nom Wah Tea Parlor.  You always find a line of young, non-Asian customers waiting.  I call this an "Instagram restaurant" because customers who come here always post pictures of themselves in front of the restaurants on Instagram.  You don't find any local Asian customers coming here.  I don't how good the dim sum is but looking at the menu, the prices are slightly higher than local dim sum restaurants.

Doyers, now a pedestrian street

Doyers, though short, is a street of mix businesses.  

A modern coffee shop

Taiwan Pork Chop House - one of my favorites

US Post Office

Restaurant made popular by Guy Fieri

From Doyers I turned left onto Bowery Street, one of the busiest in Chinatown.  There are many types of businesses here.  Here is a sampling.

Selling household goods on the sidewalk

Musician

Jewelry Store

I usually stop at the Hong Kong Supermarket to pick up some groceries, especially Chinese vegetables, which you can't get at regular grocery stores.  They are "yu choy", "shanghai bok choy", "kai lan" or Chinese broccoli, etc.  To me, they taste much better than regular green vegetables like broccoli or cauliflowers.  They used to be quite cheap but after the pandemic, the prices have shot up.

Yu Choy

Snow-pea sprouts

Kai-lan or Chinese Broccoli

Shanghai Bok Choy

There are quite a few supermarkets like Hong Kong Supermarket in the Chinatown area,  They are quite amazing, selling things that most Americans are not familiar with.  This include live seafood like dungeness crabs, different variety of fish, live fish in fish tanks, shell-fish, etc.  What you normally find in one aisle in a regular grocery store, you find the entire market selling this type of stuff,  I come here for spices, sauces, frozen buns, beverages, etc.  The prices are generally cheaper.

On the curbs are also older individual Chinese selling vegetables, fruits, and knick-knacks.  You also come across shops that sell "dry" and preserved foodstuffs and medicine.  This evolved from the days without refrigeration.  China has a long history of preserving foodstuffs - from fish and shrimp to shellfish to plants.  Plants, which are dried to become herbs, became medicine.  Many older Chinese still trust this type of medication instead of going to a western doctor.  Dry foodstuffs are used in everyday cooking:  mushrooms, anchovies, shrimp, seaweed, vegetables, etc.

Shop selling dry goods, including medicine

Dry goods used for cooking

Dry sea-cucumber

My last stop is usually Go Believe Bakery.  Here I stop for steamed buns.  They come in savory and sweet stuffings:  egg-custard, Chinese sausage, chicken, sticky rice, etc.  There are probably a dozen types.  I usually buy the Big Bun and egg-custard bun for the family.  They are selling cook-to-order rice rolls and have several bakery items.  The store is always busy, especially the refrigerated buns.  As soon as they are stocked in the refrigerator, they are gone in a couple of hours.

Go-Believe Bakery

Inside the bakery

Buns in the refrigerator

Off to the side of Chinatown, near the NYC's courts and municipal buildings is Columbus Park, where many Chinese senior citizens hang out.  They play Chinese chess or gather in small groups to play music and sing.  Some just sit around and chat.  The park is also a popular refuge for nearby office works and NYPD personnel to buy takeout lunches at nearby restaurants.

A Statue of Dr. Sun Eat Sen

A Singing Trio

Just Chilling, Chatting or Playing Cards

At the end of my route I go to the Grand Street Station and take the B or D train to 59th St and Columbus Circle and change to the northbound No. 1 train.