There are 11 Chinatowns in the New York area, with about 800,000 total residents comprising
the largest Chinese population outside of Asia.
We’re taking you to Manhattan's Chinatown, which is the most famous and while it’s
not the biggest, it’s home to the highest concentrated, industry population density
of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere.
Tourism, manufacturing, and retail are the major industries along with 300 Chinese restaurants,
some Asian antique shops, and countless souvenir stores sprawling over many blocks.
Located in lower Manhattan and the blocks around Canal Street, as you see on the map.
This is one of America's oldest Chinatowns.
The first Chinese arrived in the 1840s and they have been coming in ever since.
However, there were restrictions put on immigration in the late 19th century.
In the years after 1965 when America allowed many more immigrants from Asia into the country,
the population of Chinatown increased dramatically.
And now, the sidewalks are often crowded with a mix of locals and tourists.
Most visitors blow through in about half an hour and just walk along a couple of the main
streets like Mott, Mulberry and Canal and then depart, and that's fine.
But you can venture into the side streets and go further east to get a real taste of
the neighborhood, as we’re showing you on the map route that we took to make this movie,
bringing you all around.
Chinatown has several quite different faces.
On one hand it's an exotic bit of Asia appealing to tourists.
It will is like entering a different world from the rest of Manhattan, lots of shop selling
trinkets and many restaurants serving authentic cuisine making a, fine place to stroll.
On the other hand, it’s, a very busy commercial district with small factories, trucks loading
and unloading everywhere, warehouses packed with goods importing and exporting, many little
banks and a him slightly chaotic energy.
It's a busy New York dynamo.
And it is also home to a 100,000 Chinese, many of them poor, him living in cramped housing,
unable to speak English and hardly, if ever, leaving this neighborhood.
The housing stock of Chinatown is still mostly composed of cramped tenement buildings, some
of which are over a hundred years old.
And yet the public face of Chinatown is that of a touristic destination.
Souvenirs that are really expensive elsewhere in the city are more affordable here, and
it’s the same item you’ll find in midtown . After all most souvenirs and the cheap t-shirts
are made in China, so it figures there is a direct pipeline to Chinatown merchants.
There are many dozens of these tourist shops, and they usually have pretty much the same
stuff.
You can play the bargaining game here, especially if you're looking at several items.
So there's a couple of tips: ask them ”what your best price for this and that and that?”
And then show no interest and walk away.
And maybe you'll get a better offer.
Turn around and make your counter and then pull out some cash, it's good to have a lot
of 10s and 20s so that you can negotiate in the lower end.
Show them the money and make a deal.
That's all standard practice down here in Chinatown.
It's part of the fun and will save you a little money.
These merchants will never be offended by your low offers.
Columbus Park, the only park in Chinatown, is a popular gathering spot for young and
old…cardplaying, checkers, gossip, soccer, basketball, relaxing.
It's a major recreation center and makes a good place to get away from what might be
small apartments.
Considering the astronomical price of Manhattan real estate, it's remarkable to have this
open space, and yet necessary for the 100,000 him residents.
The park is located on what had been during the 19th century the most dangerous ghetto
area of immigrant New York.
This was the famous Five Points neighborhood as portrayed in the book and film Gangs of
New York.
Now on one side it is bordered by a tall building housing the criminal courts.
Chinatown first got started right here on Mott, Mosco, Pell, and Doyer Streets, as you
can see on the map, and we are going to take a little walk around the block here.
Pell Street is one of those earliest locations of Chinatown and it's a few blocks south of
Canal, away from Mulberry, so there's not many tourists here – it him is mostly local.
And plenty of local shops and bars and retail stores and Chinese signs everywhere.
Doyer Street is only one block long and yet it seems to go on forever with that blend
of the road.
It's got a history from the Tong gangs who had some violent shootouts with rivals here.
There's not much left of Little Italy anymore, only two blocks along Mulberry Street.
Most famous for Ferrara, that great bakery with their cannolis.
This neighborhood used to be filled with thousands of Italian immigrants a hundred years ago.
And now the Italians and other non-Chinese groups are pretty much gone.
It still has some Italian restaurants, but it's mostly tourist gift shops.
It's very much a neighborhood in transition, a lot of construction going on, revitalization
of the old buildings, and everything is going upscale, even down here in the Lower East
Side.
We will take a walk along Hester Street for a few blocks.
It's one tourist shop after another, it seems, but fun to look at with these open fronts.
As you look down the side streets you'll notice that gridiron of the old fire escapes.
It really is a characteristic and quaint touch of old New York.
Here you can see how Chinatown has really been expanding, especially out here on the
east side with the residents from Fuzhou in the southeast part of China.
In recent decades they have been the main group coming in.
Sarah Roosevelt Park, named after the mother of FDR, is, a very popular gathering spot
for the locals.
This part of town is always been an important place of commerce, since the beginnings of
our nation.
Cargo was unloaded at the docks 400 years ago and this kind of work is still going on
today in the streets, such as Allen Street, which is pretty much the eastern boundary
of Chinatown.
Completing our look at this ethnic enclave.