A shopper’s and food lover's mecca, you can find nearly anything on Canal Street, from stereo equipment to fresh fish to jewelry to industrial art supplies, truly one of America’s most dizzying arrays of products available on one street.
Head to one of the small bakeries for a snack; a Vietnamese restaurant for a large bowl of beef soup noodles; a large dim sum restaurant for a great variety of dishes; or a seafood place for great right-from-the-tank fish. Then enjoy some of the great flavors at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory on Bayard Street. Visit the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, at Baxter and Mulberry Streets, which has fascinating exhibits that chronicle the history of this community. In addition to the explosive growth of Manhattan's Chinatown, largely thanks to the tremendous economic expansion of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, two rival Chinatowns, one in Brooklyn, the other in Queens, have emerged.