I would rank NYC as the second best place to shop in the United States (the first one would definitely be Las Vegas!). You can find all you want here, no kidding. Oh ya NYC also has the best and largest Disney store in the states IMO. It was also the first Disney store I went (on my birthday!). I felt like "my dream came true" the moment I stepped into the store, and I spent like a few hours just in that store lol! There are also lots of souvenir shops in NYC (basically every shop sells the same stuffs). I used to buy souvenirs for friends, family and myself when I went traveling. In seattle, I bought some decor made by Mt. Helen ashes. When I went to Europe, I got myself a Venice handmade masque, Burano lace, a hoodie etc, and got some Slovakian handmade stuffs, shot glasses, magnets for friends and family, but I never buy souvenirs anymore after that trip. Now I'm totally immune to souvenirs. I'm even sick of seeing souvenirs sometimes, after realizing every place sells the same things. T-shirts, hoodies, cups, magnets, keychains, caps etc. Can't you guys just come up with new things to sell?!
Other than universities, another place that I will visit wherever I go is Chinatown. I'm just too obsessed with the history of Chinese immigrants and how they settle up their homes in foreign land. Maybe it's because I'm a Taishanese. Most of the earliest Chinese immigrants came from Taishan. They settled at chinatowns, and since then Taishanese became a dominant Chinese language in North America chinatowns (it was kind of like lingua franca). Nowadays you can still hear people speaking Taishanese when you walk around chinatowns, especially the older generations. During my 2++ years in the US, I had been to the chinatowns in Seattle, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Chicago, Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Portland. My favorite one would be San Francisco, for sure. It's the oldest and one of the largest chinatowns in North America, and I could feel the history walking in the chinatown. My second favorite is the one in NYC. It's large too, and has the most yummy dimsum IMO. Dimsum's my must-eat in every chinatown, and it's like a measurement for me to rate how good a Chinatown is lol. And I will sure have a cup of bubble tea after lunch in chinatown. One interesting thing you can see in the chinatowns is that they have all the shop names in chinese, even american banks. Chase bank becomes 大通銀行 cool right. NYC also has the best little italy IMO. It's just more happening than other little italy's that I've been to.
If you're a finance/ economy major, you might want to make a visit to the world's famous Wall Street. It has all the headquarters of financial institutions, New York Stock Exchange and other nerdy buildings. I didn't spend much time there, although I was a finance major (Wall Street has become not-so-attractive to me after I decided to change my major lol). The 911 memorial is just one stop away if you want to pay a visit. It requires ticket which you can get online (www.911memorial.org) for free. I didn't get in successfully 'cause I didn't do enough research beforehand and didn't know that I need a ticket to get in. But someone who was queueing up told me that I can actually get a ticket somewhere nearby, he showed me the direction but I couldn't find it and in the end I just gave up.
The next morning I took a 60-minute Downtown Cruise by New York City Sightseeing. You'll see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, Governors Island etc along the route. Note: You can't get off the cruise until it goes back to the pier, and you will see the attractions from a distance. The package was the cheapest among 3 packages they have. The other two are both 90-minutes cruise: Midtown Cruise (including what Downtown Cruise has, plus Empire State Building, United Nations, Museum of Jewish Heritage and Chrysler Building) and Twilight Cruise (same as Midtown Cruise, but it operates at 6pm daily while Midtown Cruise operates in daytime). The original price for Downtown Cruise is $19, but I got $10 off with a coupon I got at my hostel. You can buy the ticket online, or at the company's office. Keep in mind that different cruises depart from different piers. The one I took departs from Pier 5 near South Street. There will be a guide on the cruise explaining the history of NYC and attractions, the it does stop for a while for the tourists to take pictures of the attractions. It was winter when I visited NYC so I almost froze to death on the cruise, although I had 2 layers of hoods on. I didn't really like the cruise (not because of the weather), but it's not a bad thing to do if you want to kill some time or if you're lazy to walk and just wanna sit down and chill. By the way, I didn't go to the island where Statue of Liberty is located and climb inside the statue up to the crown, as the statue was under renovation. There are ferries for tourists to get to the island, and tourists have to go through security check before boarding.
After getting off the cruise I went to a Shake Shack near the pier for lunch. Friends recommended me to try it and they said it was soooooooo good. It's actually a fast food restaurant that sells burgers, fries (in 2 words: fast food lol). The restaurant was crowded and I ordered a beef burger thingy. I'm not a beef lover, so it was so-so to me.
Empire State Building is another landmark and popular tourist spot in the New York City, but I didn't get up to the 86th floor observatory/ 102nd floor top deck. I know the scene could be breathtakingly beautiful, but I'm traveling on a budget and the ticket could be expensive to me. The cheapest ticket for adult costs $25 (=2 meals) lol. That's why I don't usually pay to get up a tower to watch city scene, I only paid once for getting up the Willis Tower.
Did I mention my window-shopping experience along the fifth avenue yet? Fifth Avenue is actually a super damn long street with thousands of shops. It was December and almost Christmas when I was there, so the shops all have super nice decors, especially at night. Some have a giant L.E.D. bow hanging in front of the shop, some have giant stars on the windows... and the Swarovski store has a large star made by crystals. It was fun to just walk around and see the shop decors. I also walked to the Rockefeller Center at W. 49th St. and 5th Ave. There's a big ice rink which holds events sometimes (I'm not sure if it's open all year though).
............................................................................................................ To be continued
