Page 93 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - New York City

L OWER EAST SIDE  91

Chinatown, step into the
incense­scented Eastern
States Buddhist Temple at
64 Mott Street, where offerings
are piled up before tiny
golden Buddhas.

6 Ten Ren’s Tea
75 Mott St. Map 4 F5. Tel (212) 349­
2286. q Canal St. Open 10am–8pm
daily. ∑ tenrenusa.com

This revered Taiwanese tea shop
was established in the 1950s,
A Chinese grocer tending his shop on Canal Street and has remained a tea­lover’s
paradise. From costly oolong
The exhibits flag various 5 Chinatown teas to cheap green teas, there
historical and cultural phases Streets around Mott St. Map 4 F5. is much to explore. The “Oriental
in the Chinese­American q Canal St. Eastern States Buddhist Beauty,” a heavily fermented
narrative – from the emergence Temple: 64b Mott St. Open 9am–6pm oolong with a delicious touch
of “Chop­Suey” restaurants and daily. ∑ explorechinatown.com of honey, is one of the best
so­called “Yellowface” movies available – some say it was
in the 1930s, to the evolution Since the 1850s, Chinese Queen Victoria who gave the tea
of identity after the 1960s for immigrants have been settling its name. You can sample teas
second­generation Chinese­ in this part of New York, making while you shop, and for a more
Americans. In 1965, the Chinatown one of the biggest contemporary tea experience –
Immigration Act did away and oldest Chinese districts in think bubble tea – visit Ten Ren’s
with the NOP, and almost the West. The neighborhood is Tea Time at 73 Mott Street.
20,000 Chinese immigrants divided by the east–west
arrived in Chinatown. thoroughfare of Canal Street,
The museum was designed with Mott Street cutting north–
by Maya Lin, best known for south. The streets around, which
her creation of the Vietnam include Pell, Bayard, Doyers, and
Memorial in Washington, D. C. the Bowery, are lined with fresh
Galleries are arranged around fish and fruit stalls, dim sum rest­
a sunlit courtyard, reminiscent aurants, souvenir and antiques
of a traditional Chinese house. stores, and tea­and­rice shops.
On the corner of Pell Street
and the Bowery lies Huang Serene Columbus Park, located in
Daxian Temple, one of the few bustling Chinatown
remaining Taoist temples, with
a converted shop front. Further 7 Columbus Park
along Pell Street, No. 16 is the Map 4 F5. q Canal St.
headquarters of the Hip Sing
Tong, once a secret society. The tranquillity of Columbus
During an attack in 1924, 70 Park today could not be further
people were killed when On removed from the scene near
Leong Tong, part of a criminal this site in the early 1800s. The
fraternity, attacked the building. area, known as Mulberry Bend,
Halfway along Pell is tiny, was a red­light district, part of
crooked Doyers Street, once the infamous Five Points slum.
known as the “Bloody Angle” for Gangs with names such as the
its role as battleground during Dead Rabbits and the Plug
the Tong Wars in the early 1900s. Uglies roamed the streets.
Today more than 100,000 A murder a day was common­
Chinese­Americans live here. place; even the police were
Many visit the neighborhood afraid to pass through. Partly
to sample the cuisine, but there as a result of the writings of
is more to do here than eat – reformer Jacob Riis, the slum
there are galleries, curio shops, was taken down in 1892.
Bright street signs along the roads and Asian festivals (see p55). The park is now the only open
in Chinatown To glimpse another side of space in Chinatown.

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