Sample Group Tour: Chinatown History & Culture

Begin with a one hour walking tour to experience the uniqueness, excitement and diversity of the neighborhood. Along the route you'll see Columbus Park. At the lower end of the park, you will be standing roughly in the area of Five Points, site of the city's first tenements accommodating the massive immigration of the Germans and Irish in the 19th Century and immortalized in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. Columbus Park was created in the 1890's to improve the neighborhood. Across from the park is the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, one of the most important national archives of Chinese history in America, where you'll have time to visit their permanent exhibits or one of their special shows throughout the year.

Also on the tour is Chatham Square, another great meeting place and starting point, because so many other streets run into it or are just steps away, including Mott, Doyers, Bowery and East Broadway. Chatham Square is the site of the Kim Lau Memorial Arch, erected in 1962 in the memory of the Chinese Americans who died in WWII and a statue of Lin Ze Xu, a 19th-Century antidrug hero in China. Chatham Square was once the entertainment center of the city. Just to the south of Chatham Square, on St. James Place is the First Shearith Israel Cemetery. Dating from 1683, it's the oldest Jewish cemetery in New York City. East of the Square, on Division St, is Confucius Plaza, where a statue of Confucius stands near the tallest building in Chinatown. Along Doyers Street you'll find the most "Chinatowny" street in...well, the world. It features a 90-degree turn - legend has it the merchants built it that way so the straight flying ghosts wouldn't move through it. You may recognize the street from films and TV programs.

Today you'll find the local post office, one of Chinatown's first dim sum restaurants, teahouses and barber shops aplenty. You'll also visit Mahayana Buddhist Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Chinatown, across from the Manhattan Bridge. See the golden Buddha, perhaps the largest in New York, seated on a lotus. In between you'll discover shops, restaurants, food markets and a community bustling with everyday life. End your tour with lunch or dinner at one of Chinatown's endless variety of Asian Restaurants.

Tour Length: 4 Hours
Included:

• Walking tour with professional guide
• Admission to Museum of Chinese in the Americas
• Donation and video tour at Mahayana Buddhist Temple
• Lunch or Dinner including tax & gratuity