Walking Tour Part 2: Chinatown

Our second Walking Tour found us exploring the bustling streets of Chinatown. This involved lots of mysterious smells, confusing signs, and carefully calculated crowd-weaving, but was certainly not without its interesting lessons and historic facts. This first photograph actually shows the beginning of Little Italy in the background, which apparently was hosting some sort of a carnival-type event that day, but oh well. If anything it serves to highlight the fascinating diversity of the city and the staggeringly small size of Manhattan island:

We followed the sight of many pagoda-topped buildings and banks with the tasting of some delicious pork dumplings stuffed with flavor and awesomeness. Of course, for the more adventurous, there were also countless stalls offering take-home menu items or ingredients for the skilled chef:

The smell was something to contend with, but I was able to ignore its pungency in favor of dreams of delicious lobster and decadent stews. If I had any cooking skills or kitchen knowledge whatsoever, I would have bought me some of these:

Sure, killing lobsters is sad, but let’s not forget that eating them is delicious. Anyway, next we gazed in wonder at the cool archway and entrance to the traffic-clogged Manhattan Bridge (that there’s a suspension bridge, kids). Next to this gem is the notably tall Confucius Plaza, a massive housing project looked over by a lovely statue of Confucius himself. Although his head and shoulders may have been adorned with pigeon crap, this fine monument was nonetheless full of pride and value-honoring:

Our next piece of pictorial documentation displays the infamous “Bloody Angle,” a short and curvy street that was once known throughout the land for its gang activity and general unsafeness. This didn’t deter us from proudly walking along its sidewalks and snapping pictures like common tourists. I think the tough exterior I exude protected us from a beating. That and the fact that the streets have long since been clean and safe, and that we aren’t actually gang members.

And so we enjoyed a day of wonderful food and architecture, bountiful herbs and sea creatures, and formerly hardcore alleys. Oh, and here’s the package of incense we got for a mere dollar at the Eastern States Buddhist Temple for America. It has been meeting our incense needs for quite some time now, and doesn’t ever seem to be running out. It’s the souvenir that keeps on giving!