Manhattan's Chinatown is the best walking snack in the city, and it's been that way for longer than anyone alive has been hungry. Crooked streets, fish on ice, fruit stands that spill over the curb, and dim sum in rooms that haven't changed since your grandparents were young.
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The Chinatown vibe and the trains
Canal Street is the loud edge. Mott, Bayard and Doyers are where it gets good, with Doyers bending so hard you can't see the end of it. Over on East Broadway, under the Manhattan Bridge, it's a little less for visitors and a little more for the people who live here.
Trains: Canal St has the N, Q, R, W, J, Z and 6 all in one big messy station. The B and D stop at Grand St, and the F at East Broadway. North and east you walk right into the Lower East Side without noticing.
Chinatown munchies: dim sum, dumplings and roast meats
Nom Wah Tea Parlor on Doyers is dim sum the old way, and the room's half the reason to go. Golden Unicorn is the big banquet hall experience, carts and chaos. Joe's Shanghai is the soup dumpling standard. Wo Hop and Great NY Noodletown are the institutions for wonton soup and roast meats.
Vanessa's Dumpling House and Prosperity Dumpling are the cheap move, a stack of fried dumplings in a paper box, eaten walking. Then follow your nose: bakeries selling egg tarts and pineapple buns, barbecue pork hanging in the window, and fruit stands selling things you can't name. Citywide picks are in NYC munchies, and the after-midnight noodle story is in late-night NYC.
Things to do in Chinatown when you're baked
Walk Doyers Street, the old bent block, slowly. Look up. Then head for the Museum of Chinese in America on Centre Street, a calm hour that'll teach you a lot about the blocks you just ate through. Keep going across the Manhattan Bridge walkway if you want a long one, with the trains rattling beside you and the whole river below.
For more, our things to do high in NYC list has the rest of downtown, and Metrograph is a short walk away when you want to sit in the dark.
Columbus Park and Sara D. Roosevelt Park
Columbus Park is Chinatown's living room: card games, erhu players, old men arguing over a board, kids everywhere. Sara D. Roosevelt Park runs along Chrystie and Forsyth up to Houston. Both are city parks, so they're smoke-free. Sesh at home, then come sit. Rules are in where you can sesh in NYC.
Chinatown: the good and the annoying
The good
Cheap food that's actually great, seven subway lines at one station, and more to look at per block than almost anywhere.
The annoying
Canal Street crowds, bags of knockoffs at your knees, and a lot of places that take cash only. Carry some.
