All You Need To Know About Chinatown April 04 2014

  1. Many of Manhattan’s other ethnic enclaves are shrinking or gentrifying, but not Chinatown.

  2. Now it is expanding eastward beyond its original boundaries into the Lower East Side and northward into Little Italy.

  3. Visitors come for the ambiance, for bargains, and for food, as well as for knockoff designer handbags and perfume.

  4. Sunday is the busiest day, when Chinese who have moved out to the suburbs return the old neighborhood

  5. Chinatown remains plagued by poverty, overcrowding, and physical deterioration: its housing and business space is largely substandard. It supports an underground economy that includes sweatshop labor, counterfeiting, and the smuggling of illegal immigrants.

  6. With an estimated population of 90,000 to 100,000 people, Manhattan's Chinatown is also one of the oldest ethnic Chinese enclaves outside of Asia, consisting primarily of Cantones and Min-speaking residents, although there is now some Mandarin speakers.

  7. If you're looking for spicy, Sichuan cuisine, Grand Sichuan International is the perfect Chinatown choice.