We started our day with a bus ride to NYC. I don’t remember how long it was, but I had this amazing view of the cityscape from across the Hudson and it really told me this is the big city, nothing like San Francisco. Checking into the hotel, all the girls were kind of mad at us for having a “nice” Hudson River view from our suite. It was barely a view with having the other side of the hotel cutting it off and the window being hella dirty. We went to the Tenement Museum and Highline Park. Not much else to say but I got some pretty good shots in there. The things to talk was going back to Chinatown for dinner. When we walked up from the metro station, there was this late night food cart, cooking up some kebabs. It was really exciting to see that NYC really invests into its nightlife. I don’t even care we had hotpot for dinner. Seeing that food cart was my highlight. I hope to see some of these pop up around Chinatown. It’ll give it such a cool atmosphere.
-David Trang
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Wanting to make the most of our time in New York City, we booked the 6:30 AM bus from Washington DC to NYC with Bolt Bus. We woke up at 4:00 AM and took a taxi to Union Station where the bus stop was. The bus ride took about four hours, with a break at a rest stop in the middle. We spent most of the ride catching up on sleep. The NYC stop was a 10-15 minute walk from our hotel. We stayed at the Wyndham New Yorker. When we arrived, only two of the rooms were ready, so we dropped off our luggage in one room before heading out. We bought a 7-day unlimited metro pass to travel around for $31 each. For lunch, we were going to eat at a hot pot place at 99 Favor Taste, but we were tight on time. We ended up quickly eating at a small Chinese cafe. My table had two types of Chinese porridge (congee) - pork with preserved duck eggs and peanuts with other things. We also had beef rice rolls and fried dough wrapped in rice rolls. We then headed to Tenement Museum near Grand Street to go on the “Then and Now” Tour to learn about the housing within the area. Our tour guide was SJ. She showed us many previous apartment buildings and synagogues. After the tour, we passed by an ice cream place called Minus Celsius. Their specialty was rolled ice cream. They pour melted ice cream onto a cold surface and then used a spatula to scrape the ice cream into rolls. I got the Thai Tea one with fruit toppings such as strawberries, mangos, and pineapple. It was very refreshing in the humid weather.
Afterwards, we headed to check out the Highline Park. We got a little lost and ended up at the Hudson River Park. The Highline Park was a park that was suspended above ground. The park was filled with many people and was a good place to relax and enjoy the nature. Afterwards, we headed back to Grand Street to eat at the hot pot place that we were originally going to eat at. When we got out of the subway station, we saw a food stand selling skewers. A couple of us got skewers before heading to the restaurant. The beef skewer was very flavorful. The hot pot restaurant was a little different than the usual ones that I’ve been to. Usually, they give one big pot for a couple people to share. This restaurant had individual pots for each person, where we could choose specifically the type of broth we want. I chose the pork bone soup. By the end of the meal, we were very full. We ordered 3-4 rounds of meat and vegetables as it was all you can eat. -Diana Lin At the lowly hour of 5 AM, we had to leave our hotel to catch a Bolt Bus to New York City. At this point, I was thoroughly satisfied with what we saw at Washington D.C; it’s a small district regardless so we likely covered most of the area anyway. Still, there was one thing I wanted to try—Dunkin’ Donuts. Many claim Dunkin Donuts to be the Krispy Kreme of the East Coast, which I later found to be completely untrue. While Krispy Kreme worries my blood sugar levels with every bite, Dunkin’ Donuts has just slightly more taste than the oatmeal my mom cooks for me in the morning. Quite a disappointment indeed. Since our bus ride was at an abnormally early hour, we ended up arriving at NYC with a full day ahead of us. First on the list was a tour of the infamous NYC tenement buildings. I learned lots about these tenement buildings from my history class, so I was thoroughly excited to venture into one of these tenements myself to explore. Sad to say, our tour wasn’t an interior tour of tenement buildings, but a tour of the tenement district itself. Not what I expected, but the tour was still enjoyable. Much of the tenement district turns out to be NYC’s present-day Chinatown which bears an uncanny resemblance to San Francisco’s Chinatown, yet I can’t hold the two together. While many aspects are similar, the atmospheres are completely different. Whereas San Francisco’s Chinatown hub, Portsmouth Square, boasts a vibrant and extremely active feeling, NYC’s Chinatown hub, Columbus Park, boasts a peaceful and soothing feeling. Neither is necessarily better than the other, but there’s no hesitation when I say I’d rather watch old men play Chinese Chess in Columbus Park. Our visit to NYC’s Chinatown was followed by an excruciatingly long walk to NYC’s “High Line”. At this point, most everybody’s legs were dead so little people actually made an effort to stroll across the one-way garden. I could probably spend an entire day walking through High Line, and I probably will if I ever decide to return to NYC. I’m not the biggest fan of nature, but the garden walk is truly a thing of beauty. A wonderful way to end this day.
-David Yi I was full of excitement arrived when we all arrived to Manhattan, New York. We took a lot of forms of transportation including the Bolt Bus, the buses, and the Metro trains. When we first arrived and was walking through the streets of Manhattan, it looked like what it was in the movies. Everyone was rushed and busy; people were jaywalking; streets were crowded. It felt very different than DC, but quite similar to San Francisco’s Chinatown. Stockton Street was always crowded with people and seniors sometimes get impatient when crossing the road. I have a hard time wondering whether I like the busy streets or not.
After dropping our things in the hotel, we all head to New York’s Chinatown. There we took on a two-hour tour called “Then and Now” by the Tenement Museum. As we crossed by each location, we would discuss about the each changes from before to how it is now. One thing I learned was that the tenement housing. They were very similar to the single room occupancies in SF’s Chinatown, except that single room occupancies still exist to this day while tenements in Manhattan rarely exist. By the time we finished our tour, everyone was starving so we all head down to a Chinese restaurant and had a delicious hot pot meal. -Angela Iao On the fourth day we woke up early in the morning to take the BoltBus. We took the BoltBus for around 4 hours before we arrived at New York. When we arrived, the first thing that I did was to open Google Maps on my phone, because I was the person that was leading the agenda today. At New York our first destination was the New Yorker Wyndham Hotel. There we got lucky so we were able to check into one of the three rooms, so we were able to drop off our luggage in that room. At the same time we were told that the boy’s room had a beautiful view of the Hudson River, so we were excited to see the view after we come back from the long day. After dropping off our luggage, we went to get seven day metro passes and from there we took the metro bus to New York’s Chinatown where the tenement museum is located at. We then had a tour about “Then and Now”, where we learned about the neighborhood's history. After taking the tour we walked back to the metro station we stumbled upon an ice cream store called Minus Celsius that makes rolled up ice cream. After eating at Minus Celsius we took the metro for around two stops before we got off to walk to the High Line. Before we got to the High line, we took a short break near the Hudson River Park because many people were tired from the walk. When we arrived at the High Line and walked around half of the High Line before we had to go eat because it was getting pretty late. We then went back to Chinatown to eat at the 99 favors taste restaurant where we had hot pot for dinner. When we went back to the Hotel, the first thing I did when we went to our room is to try to catch a glimpse of the beautiful view. Instead, we just saw a tiny portion of the Hudson River and the other parts completely covered up by high rises. At this point I was disappointed.
-Danny Yu We wake up in the morning and ready to take the taxi to get to the Union Station to take the Bolt Bus to our next city, New York City. I get the chance to get on the second taxi but the taxi came late. Our group are frightened that we might missed the bus. But we did not, we are quite lucky on the trip. The Union Station is gorgeous. It has the Roman domes and great architect. We went to try Dunkin Doughnuts for the first time. Later, we took our four hour Bolt Bus ride to New York. We walked to Wyndham New Yorker Hotel and checked into our room. I love my room and I can’t missed it more. The subway stations in NYC is confusing, we got lost many times inside the subway. We took the subway and got us to our first tour: Then and Now by Tenement Museum. We walked around the Lower Eastside of Manhattan Chinatown. The Chinatown looks gigantic but with little Chinese population. From what I learned from the tour, they plan to expand into the Little Italy. We walked around the Chinatown, the places are poorly renovate and the government did not put much effort in helping to maintain the land. It was solely the community who gather to help themselves. After the tour, we went to Highline, it was a greenery open space. There are many tourists walked through the bridge like we did. We spent about an hour and we head back to Chinatown and get Hot Pot for dinner.
P.s. for myself: Great Job again! You didn't eat fast food (MD). Determination is the key for healthy body. -Meifeng Deng Good bye Washington D.C.! And hello to New York. We first checked into our hotel and then we bought an expensive train ticket for 31 dollars. We made our way to the tenement museum to attend a walking tour, “Then and Now,” around the area. Throughout the tour the questions of who gets to decide the change? And what are the community needs? Continues to pop up in my mind. Although we are on the opposite side of the coast, there are many things that never changes. The living conditions, the immigrants, community members, discrimination, and wealth continues to play a huge role in shaping a neighborhood and a city. The tenements at NYC are similar to the SRO, Single Room Occupancies, which we have here in San Francisco. After the tour we discovered the roll ice cream shop called Minus Celsius. I tried some rolled ice cream during Vancouver’s night market but we were all excited because we saw these ice cream online and majority of us wanted to try it. We later walked to the Highline but made a quick stop at Hudson River Park to enjoy the view before we found Highline. After walking Highline we took the bus to connect to the subway so we can go back to Grand St. for hot pot which we wanted to eat for lunch but unfortunately did not have time until dinner.
-Lisa Yu Another day of waking up early in the morning. Two hours of sleep sure felt great. I woke up at around 4:30 A.M. this morning since we had to leave D.C. and travel to New York through Bolt Bus at 6:30 A.M. We all took the taxi at around 5:15 A.M. and arrived at the Union Station. Now this was the first time where we tried Dunkin’ Donuts, despite the fact that we’ve seen it for multiple times throughout our trip in D.C. We bought a box of small donut holes for everyone to share as “breakfast.” Then off we went from D.C. on our way to New York. We took a short break in the middle of the bus ride and later arrived to New York at around 10:30 A.M. New York’s weather is quite hot as well, but at least it is not as humid as D.C. The first and foremost important thing to do there of course, is to check in at our hotel. This hotel, Wyndham New Yorker, is so big compared to the one we stayed at in D.C. (with eight floors total). After a while of talking with the receptionist, we all stored our luggage in one room and headed out. Now the second most important thing to do here on our first day in New York of course was to purchase our metro card. We all bought a 7-day pass for $31, since many of the places we visit here has to be travelled through the metro trains. Our first stop in New York -- Chinatown! Since we scheduled a tour at 2:00 P.M., we had to quickly grab lunch and head to the Tenement Museum, the meetup place for the tour. As we were standing on the streets of Chinatown trying to search for a restaurant to eat at, we came to see this hot pot place named 99 Favor Taste. Our whole group of twelve went inside the restaurant, went to the second floor, then decided that we actually would not have enough time to finish this meal, apologized then headed back out. Now imagine if you were one of the customers dining there, you would probably be staring at us. And yes, that was exactly how it was like when we were walking out of the restaurant as we saw many pairs of eyes focused on us. Later, we finally settled at another Chinese restaurant and ate a quick, yummy, and not-so-expensive brunch. Now is when we finally started heading to the Tenement Museum, which was really not that far away. We went on a “Then and Now” tour with our own group of twelve people, and we mainly walked about the Lower East side of New York. The first thing around this area that stood out to me was the public open space with tables and chairs in the middle of the street, with cars passing by on both sides, also serving as a very large refuge island for pedestrians crossing the crosswalk. The tour started with some background information about the Tenement Museum building before we proceed to the parlor of another tenement. There, we learned about the red light district where there used to be prostitution in the residential area in 1901, which reminded me of Broadway Street in SF’s Chinatown. At one of the stops of the tour, Cera Roosevelt Park, we learned about the low cost affordable housing buildings in New York. There was actually a contest for designs of the buildings, and from what we see in the pictures from the tour guides, their affordable housing buildings look quite similar to the Ping Yuen buildings we have here in San Francisco. Another stop we made along our way was the M’Finda Kalunga Garden. We walked inside and saw many beautiful flowers and plants. Overall, it was a nice experience I would say, despite the fact that my allergies were killing me while we were at the garden. (And I also don’t know why but my allergies are getting at me right now as I’m writing this...literally, no joke.) An interesting fact that I learned from the tour guide was something called the Green Thumb status, which basically certifies a park by the city. In SF, most, if not all, of our parks are considered open space to the public where everyone can just enter. Later, we came about to a hotel that stands out a lot on the street we were at, due to its glass windows and extraordinary height (much taller than its surrounded buildings). At this stop, we learned a little about the building height laws and the air rights of this hotel, which reminded me of the zoning law we have in SF’s Chinatown. Another stop we made was in front of a blue mosaic glass window building in which its name is called Blue (nice name indeed). From what I recall from the tour, residents here are chosen by lottery and they have to be re-verified to prove their qualification. This also reminded me of the lottery system that we have here in SF for the condominium buildings. Finally, the last stop of our tour, where we stood near to a few buildings that were built under the time of Urban Renewal. Already, this topic reminded me of a building in SF’s Chinatown -- the International Hotel in Manilatown. Many residents from this building were displaced when the city had to take down twenty nine acres of tenements. This was also the time where racial discrimination took place when most of the residents being displaced were Black or Latino and many who were placed in the buildings were white, also known as the white flight. One thing that I’ve also noticed along our way through the tour was that many buildings around this area are mixed-use, meaning that the lower level is for commercial use and the upper level is for residential purposes, which is what you will see in SF’s Chinatown as well. Overall, this was a nice tour as I learned a lot about the Lower East Side of Manhattan and discovered a several similarities between this area and San Francisco’s Chinatown. Next stop on our agenda would be the High Line, but before that, we somewhat went on an adventure. First, on our way to leaving Chinatown, we came to discover the famous roll up ice cream place, Minus Celsius. It was a nice and cool experience, seeing the chefs there making the ice cream for the customers on an ice cold platform. To me, the ice cream making process seemed as if the knives (or if not then a type of utensil) were ice skating. The taste of the ice cream seemed quite ordinary, maybe with a bit more of frozen ice cream compared to the regular ones. I felt that the price of this was more paid for the eye witnessing of the process of making the ice cream as well as its finished product, rather than the actual ice cream itself, as it was worth $7 for a cup. After the ice cream experience, we finally left Chinatown and was on our way to the High Line. We got off the metro and had quite a while of walking before we arrived. And on our way, we actually made a stop at the Hudson River Harbor, which looked much alike the Zhu Jiang River in China, according to a few people in our group. It was indeed a very nice view at the harbor, as we spent some time taking pictures and resting there. A few minutes later, we finally arrived at the High Line, as it wasn’t that far away from the Hudson River. We walked along the High Line from one end to the other by ourselves and explored around with our best friend -- our cameras (a.k.a. our smartphones and also some actual real cameras). Now it is the time for dinner, and as much as we want to try the hot pot place we attempted earlier today, we decided to head back to Chinatown for dinner. We took our first bus ride in New York to the metro station. Again, the buses in New York are also similar to the ones in SF, and also just with the same one extra feature -- air conditioning. We then transferred to the metro and arrived back in Chinatown. At the 99 Favor Taste restaurant, we chose to have Hot Pot for all you can eat. What I like about the hot pot style here is that it was one pot per person, so everyone can choose their own soup base. And this was the time where I decided to try the congee soup base that I have long wanted to try. In the beginning, we basically ordered one dish of everything that didn’t require us to pay extra and ordered more as we made our way through the meal. After dinner, we took the metro back to our hotel, and on the streets we saw many beautiful lights and LED plaque displays. We got the other two rooms in the hotel and brought our luggage to our own room. I liked the room we had in New York’s hotel. Although it only has one bathroom, we now don’t have to share it among nine people. So far, my impression of New York is that I like this city (despite the fact that it is extremely busy especially at the metro stations), and it does seem to have quite a huge Chinese population.
-Shirley Tsang May 30, 2016, today is the day we say goodbye to DC, and say hello to New York. Once again everyone woke up early in the morning like 4 a.m. because we need to get to Union Station before 6:15 a.m. to take a four hours’ bus ride to New York. We all took a taxi to Union Station and I got Dunkin Doughnut for breakfast (only shop that is open). When I got on the bus I felt a sleep right away. Once we all arrived to New York, I was so excited, however, the weather is little bit different then DC, is a bit colder. We walk to our hotel, check in the room, drop off our luggage, and left the hotel. When to the metro station and get our seven – day metro card for thirty – one dollar, I agree is expensive. So we took the metro to Grant station (where is Chinatown) and we have lunch there. I call a porridge and it tasted super good, literally every bit with yummy sound after. I don't know I am really hungry, but defiantly tasty. After a delicious lunch, we took tour call “Now and Then”. This tour talks about the changes in the neighborhood. The tenement is a type of housing that originally design for one family, but now there are more than one families in this rooms, which this typical type of housing is pretty similar to San Francisco single room occupancy. Many place around the neighborhood have a lot of good stories behind each changes. Is really interesting to learn the “now and then” in the neighborhood. Right after we finish our tour, we all crash into one of the ice-cream store (Minus Celsius) and got ourselves some roll ice-cram (its tasted awesome), before we move on to our next location. Before we head to the highline, we make quick stop at Hudson River Park to rest and take some picture. After that, we all walk up to the highline. From there we took the bus back to metro and head back to Grand street for our dinner hot pot. We eat a lot we spend about two hours to eat and finally we all head back to our hotel and rest.
-Elsa Iao It’s my first time taking a taxi in the East Coast! We were up early in the morning to get ready. Our plan is to take the Bolt Bus from D.C. to New York. The Bolt Bus experience is super awesome because I get to take long extensive naps! New York really reminds me of the Home Alone Lost in New York movie. New York is a very fast-pace city. Even though I walk very fast, but I do not enjoy this densely populated and rocket- speed city. But I love everything else in NY besides its crowdedness and fast-moving lifestyle. I love the open spaces in NY, especially the Highline. The Highline used to an abandoned rail lines, but its designers came up with such a brilliant design to repurpose and to reactivate the space! I really love the biodiversity at Highline. I was just taking pictures of plants the whole time where I was there. Got to appreciate the nature, isn’t it?
-Sandy Jiang |
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