Chinatown Walking Tour

There is no better time to experience Chinatown than during Lunar New Years. The aromas of fish, food and firework fumes, the dashing colors of store signs, all seem magnified in light of the festivities. Even the usual wry smiles of the fishmongers were turned into full-blown grins. But to walk through the claustrophobic streets with a group of over-enthusiastic tourists? I’ll be the first to admit I barely lasted 10 minutes.

The New Years Walking Tour took place on the last three Saturday’s of January. Although the dates change each year depending on the lunar calendar. It is sponsored by the inconspicuous Chinatown museum, the Museum of Chinese in America. The tour walks you through the Chinatown neighborhoods starting from the Museum. The purpose of the tour is to educate tourists about traditions of Chinese New Years and how immigrants reproduce them here in New York.

The sheer amount of people in Chinatown in the week leading up to Chinese New Year is overwhelming. It seemed like the whole city decided to drop by and absorb the festivities and “fu qi” or good luck. The tour guide was a middle aged man with many humorous anecdotes about the Chinese, he started by explaining what Lunar New Years is and why the dates change every year. When we started walking, I realized that attempting to hear over the squabbling people in my group while trying to absorb everything that was going on, was going to be a lost cause. So I branched off to explore the streets that the tour guide had pointed out as the most festive.

I caught quite the eyeful that day; my experience with Chinese New Years has always been a week of festivities, games, food and of course, family. I don’t think anything would make up for the lack of that most important element, but being in Chinatown made it quite hard to stay down about missing out at home. Many of the streets were covered in a thick layer of shredded confetti, and there were hundreds of stalls selling flowers and firecrackers. Chinese New Years in New York is as if everything has been crammed into the tiny streets and exploded into a huge celebration.