In New York City's Chinatown - 去唐人街

This video is from Wednesday, Day 4 of my New York City trip, when we stumbled on a funeral procession. The deceased is either very popular or very rich (or a triad family gang member). Either way, we don't get to see this kind of elaborate ceremony in London!

A little Sex & A lot of City - 林深去纽约

Just got back from New York City, on another whirl-wind four day tourist pilgrimage. I have been to New York three times now, but never have I been able to travel around freely and truly absorb the atmosphere until this time.

With thanks to my friend and fellow grad. student, Ellie, we managed to pick through some of the hotspots and cheap eats in the Big Apple as well as an economic, but good quality students’ hostel. The best way to tell the story, is by the photos I took (see Flikr). I will also upload some video clips from my trip, when I have time.

Meanwhile, here is a small De-Briefing:

Day 1: Traveled via Chinatown-Chinatown shuttle from Washington DC to New York. Bladder almost bursts with urine on a non-stop 4hr bus journey. Have lunch at GoGo Dimsum in a small Chinatown restaurant overlooking the Municiple Building.

Arrive at a made-for-students hostel, HI Hostel on Amsterdam Ave and 103^rd St. Upper West Side. After check-in, walk through the upper half of Central Park, along the Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis Resevoire, the Great Lawn, Turtle Pond and onto 79^th Street East. Grab a burger at a Spanish restaurant. Walk back..

Day 2: Walk down 5^th Avenue from 72^nd Street all the way to 34^th Street. Walk past the world’s most expensive and largest shops. Get forcefully offered perfume at Saks 5^th Ave. store. Walk past Time Square back up to the Metro station.

Go back to the hostel to meet Ellie, who has just come from Princeton, after a 2 month lab placement. Grab a sandwich at Subway. Go back downtown to climb to the top of the Rockefeller Centre. Gawk at a stunning view. Walk back to 5^th Avenue and see St Patrick’s Church. Go to the Museum of Sex (MOSEX) and laugh at early 20^th Century US / Japanese / Manga porn (Yes, cartoon porn, cheap thrills!). Walk down to Union Square to have dinner at the Republic on 17^th St. Go back to meet Ellie’s friend and go out to a couple of bars – an Irish bar on Broadway 102^nd and the Dive Bar on Amsterdam Ave, 96^th St.

Day 3 (This day had thunderstorms): Catch the bus to visit the Guggenheim Museum. Visit the Metropolitan Art Museum (The Met). Have an expensive burger at The Met. Gaze at the Manhattan skyline from the roof top. Take the bus to the Museum of Natural History. Gawk at dinosaur skeletons.

Walk to a Cuban/Chinese restaurant, “Caridad” on Columbus Ave and eat until our stomachs drop. Walk to the Lincoln Centre and listen to open air free jazz concert. Watch a free stilt show/dance perfomance at sunset. Go back all tired

Day 4: Catch the metro to Brooklyn and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan. Walk from City Hall Park to Chinatown. Watch a hundred men funeral procession with its own Chinese horn blowers and carnival dancers. Walk up to Little Italy and have lunch at Il Forna. Ellie chats up an architectural firm partner, who shows off his blackberry and claims to have sent all 4 kids through Ivy League universities (a rich New Yorker).

Arrive at Battery Park and take the Circle line ferry to Liberty Island, followed by Ellis Island. Take pictures at the foot of Statue of Liberty and learn America’s immigration history. Have dinner at McDonald’s near Wall Street (I was told this would be a swanky branch, but it wasn’t). Climb the Empire State Building at sunset and watch the lights in Manhattan flicker on. Gasp at the view. Go back all tired.

Day 5: Walk with Ellie through Straberry Fields (John Lennon’s memorial) and to the promenade, Central Park. Go rowing at “The Lake” and take cheesy pictures of each other and of turtles. Go back to Subway to grab a sandwich. Say goodbye to Ellie (she will spend another two days there), check-out of hostel and catch the shuttle bus back to DC.

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For me, the “Sex” I saw was in the Sex Museum and strongly suggested by the gorgeous looking women strolling their tiny dogs around town. But the “City” I saw was, just as Americans say, like “Emerald City” from the Wizard of Oz. New York is a place where American dreams are made and quashed everyday, where people’s egos and salary scales are as tall as the buildings they work in and as large as the 5^th Avenue they walk on.