Take a walk in the area just north of the courthouses and City Hall and you’ll feel as if you’ve entered a different continent. You won’t hear much English spoken along the crowded streets of Chinatown, lined by fish, fruit and vegetable stands. With more than 150,000 Chinese residents, Manhattan’s Chinatown is one the largest Chinese communities outside Asia.

The neighborhood bustles with street life from exotic food stalls to shop proprietors hawking their wares. This is creative shopping at its best: housewares, textiles and clothing, toys and gifts from trendy to traditional line the streets and the store shelves. Canal Street, a bargain hunter’s paradise, is infamous as a source of (illegal) knock-off designer handbags, perfumes and other goods. The area’s many gift shops are stocked with fun, inexpensive Chinese products. Eating here is an adventure, too, with venues ranging from dim sum parlors to buffets to high-end restaurants. For insight on this ancient culture in the new world, visit the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, which contains exhibits on the progression of Chinese culture in the U.S.