Things to do in Chinatown

Museum of Chinese in America

The shopkeepers and families whose stories fill the Museum of Chinese in America make a useful starting point for your walk. You can begin with the reconstructed general store, assembled from salvaged objects and memories of shops in Los Angeles, Boston and New York. These businesses sold goods, but they also served as pharmacies, post offices, travel agencies and community centers.

From there, the galleries trace early trade and travel between China and the United States, the Chinese Exclusion Act’s effects on work and family life, and changes following immigration reform in 1965. I’d give the photography section some attention for its examination of how outsiders pictured Chinatown. Later displays turn toward community organizing, keeping individual lives connected to larger political changes. Audio commentary through Bloomberg Connects offers another way into the objects and stories as you explore.

Columbus Park

Neighbors gather across generations in Columbus Park, where you might see Ping-Pong or tai chi alongside the everyday use of the basketball courts and playgrounds. Sitting and watching is a perfectly good way to spend this stop. Chinese chess, mahjong and card games are part of the park’s documented social life.

This is also the former Five Points area, a brief historical connection to carry over from the museum. Yu & Me Books is directly across from the park on Mulberry Street.

Yu & Me Books

Lucy Yu built Yu & Me Books around diverse community voices, with a particular focus on immigrant stories. You’re browsing a selection shaped by her interest in representation: books in which readers can find themselves, and voices absent from many other shelves. Even the name carries a family connection. The YM initials are also her mother’s, a nod to stories passed between generations and languages.

The shop is also a café and bar, so you can make this a reading stop with a drink after the park. Choose an espresso or cappuccino, or go toward matcha, chai or tea; the menu also includes beer and Makku makgeolli.

Chinatown Fair

At Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center, you can trade the book in your hands for an air-hockey paddle or a round of skeeball. The all-ages arcade on Mott Street makes a distinct change of pace after the park and bookshop. Its games span basketball, racing, shooting, rhythm and dance, with prize games in the mix too.

The illuminated cabinets are closely arranged, so the arcade itself becomes the focus of this indoor stop before the walk turns toward a meal on Doyers Street.

Nom Wah Tea Parlor

Diners have been coming to the original Nom Wah Tea Parlor on Doyers Street since it began as a bakery and tea parlor in 1920. For your meal, the useful starting point is a few dim sum dishes to share around the table. The house special roast pork bun wraps pork and caramelized onions in a steamed wheat-flour bun, making it a different proposition from a plate of dumplings.

I’d pair that bun with the shrimp and snow pea leaf dumplings, which combine minced shrimp and greens in homemade open-faced wrappers, then add a scallion pancake for another texture. Tea belongs naturally in the meal here: pastries, steamed buns, dim sum and tea all figure in the history of this long-established neighborhood business.

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

The family behind Chinatown Ice Cream Factory has served homemade ice cream on Bayard Street since 1978. You’ll find a playful reversal on its menu: almond cookie, black sesame, lychee, red bean and durian appear among the regular flavors, while vanilla and chocolate sit under “exotic.”

To narrow your choice, Almond Cookie blends Chinese almond cookies from Fung Wong Bakery into the ice cream, while Black Sesame contains black sesame seeds. Lychee takes you toward fruit. Two other menu descriptions are worth knowing before you choose: Don Tot is a light Chinese egg custard flavor, and Zen Butter combines peanut butter ice cream with toasted sesame seeds.

Museum at Eldridge Street

Eastern European Jewish immigrants built the synagogue that now houses the Museum at Eldridge Street in 1887. You enter a sanctuary where the congregation’s history is visible in both elaborate decoration and worn pine floorboards. Guided and self-guided visits explore immigration, worship and the restoration that took nearly twenty years, following a period when the main sanctuary was shut and worship continued downstairs.

The monumental blue east window is a contemporary addition, designed by Kiki Smith and architect Deborah Gans and installed in 2010. Its date helps distinguish it from the older hand-painted walls and ceilings. The nineteenth-century chandelier was later wired for electricity, another visible change in the building’s life.

In the vestibule outside the sanctuary, Mark Podwal’s glass zodiac mosaic floor adds a more recent layer, installed in 2024. Its twelve signs pair with Hebrew month initials; Capricorn’s sea-goat holds a Hanukkah menorah. It gives you a specific detail to seek out beyond the large window, before returning to present-day Chinatown.