Manhattan's Chinatown

Manhattan's Chinatown reunites the largest population of Chinese people in the western hemisphere. It is situated in the borough or Manhattan in New York. It is one of the oldest ethnic Chinese enclaves apart from Asia.

In this area, tourism and restaurant are the most important industries. Chinatown is one of the top 10 places to visit when you are in New York City. It has many historical and cultural attractions and they are many Tour stops organised to visit it.

It is a commercial area, but it is also a residential area. They are 90 000 to 100 000 people living in this part of the city.

In 2010, Chinatown (and little Italy) were listed in a single Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

There used to be Chinese theatres in Chinatown. Among these theatres were the Sun Sing Theatres, the Pagoda Theater, the Rosemary Theatre, just to name a few. These theatres had the habit of showing movies with Chinese AND English subtitles.

To make it simple, we can describe Chinatown as a chinese city situated in the heart of Manhattan. The names of the streets are written in chinese on the official boards, the ads are often written in chinese, and the surprising thing is that the bank HSBC building is built like a traditional chinese one ! These elements shows that Chinatown is fully integrated to NYC.

Nowadays, Chinatown is a very important neighborhood which grows incredibly fast even if chinese communities are flourishing in Queens. It is a tourist attraction, and is the home of many "Chinese New Yorkers". In Chinatown, we can find hundreds and hundreds of restaurants, fish markets and of course, overcrowded streets !