Visually exotic and full of inexpensive wares and gadgets, Chinatown is a popular tourist attraction, but also a vital community where roughly a quarter of the city's population of 400,000 Chinese still lives. Its main businesses are restaurants, retail stores, and garment factories; roughly half of its residents speak little or no English. Historically, Chinatown was divided from Little Italy by Canal Street. However, since the late 20th century an influx of immigrants has swelled Manhattan's Chinese population. Chinatown now spills over its traditional borders into Little Italy to the north and the formerly Jewish Lower East Side to the east.

From fast-food noodles or dumplings to sumptuous Hunan, Szechuan, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Shanghai feasts, every imaginable type of Chinese cuisine is served here. Sidewalk markets burst with stacks of fresh seafood and strangely shaped fruits and vegetables. Food shops proudly display their goods: if America's motto is "A chicken in every pot," then Chinatown's must be "A roast duck in every window."