A visit to Chinatown in New York City is all about the food and market

Visiting New York City for the first time can be overwhelming. It can get worse if you only have a short window of time to spend in the Big Apple but Chinatown has to be on your go-to list.

Located in Lower Manhattan just north of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, Chinatown is a busy district with food and a market that can’t be missed. It is a trip into history and a deep dive into the culture at the heart of the city.

Chinatown stretches from Broadway to the west and Rutgers Street to the east. On the north side, Canal Street bends at Mott Street and it is here that you will find the Hong Kong supermarket. The spacious market offers all the traditional Chinese food you can imagine but the real fun is out on the streets.

Throughout most of the week, in normal non-Covid times, you can find tables upon tables selling everything from fruit to fish along the streets. If the fresh food of the markets isn’t your thing, there are more restaurants than you can think of and enough to keep you fed your entire stay.

Chinatown is one of the largest Chinese neighborhoods in all of the United States. It estimated that 90 to 100,000 people live in the area. Chinatown is also one of nine “Chinatowns” that are located in New York and New Jersey with the larger areas in Queens, Brooklyn, and of course Manhattan.

The area developed over the course of decades. During the mid-1800s, Chinese immigration began to increase, and naturally, they congregated together for safety and other reasons. Today, the area is an amazing trip into a culture that you would only experience across Asian countries. Even here there is a mix in ethnicity and diversity that represents all 34 Chinese provinces.

Even if you are simply doing a walkthrough you can’t beat the atmosphere and it stays alive well after the sun sets. Chinatown is a wonderful place to take your family and your kids.