New York, New York, I love New York1x It's the city that never sleeps; it just goes on breathing 24 hours a day. Yet, when I first visited to New York in summer of 1977, the city and its surroundings shocked me. The JFK airport was so crowded with people, the air was stale. Then again, the whole idea of America's being a melting pot was totally unfamiliar to a girl, first coming to New York from the small city in Midwest.
Who would have believed such a place as the Lower East Side of Manhattan existed? Yet, there were so many people in the street, all speaking different kinds of languages, who could deny all these people were real1x Now, all these many years later, the New York of 2000 has totally different face. I simply couldn't help to falling in love with this New York.
New York City has distinguished itself with its many structural and architectural feats. Yet, if you want sophistication, culture, and authentic foods, you'll find them here as well. You can have a reasonably priced lunch in Manhattan's Korean town, around 32nd & Park Ave, and then all you have to do is to walk to few blocks to start your sightseeing at the 62-year-old Empire State Building.
Once you take the elevator to the top of the Empire State Building, you'll see the entire city, including Hudson River, spread before your eyes. Once up there, you will likely have an urge to shout that you have conquered the world. I know I did1x
After you have finished your shopping on Park Ave, you might want to hang around the Madison Ave area. Nighttime on this street has it all, from graffiti artists to street performances, and Times Square
is the advertising Mecca of the world--designed to make you to forget what time zone you are in.
Man-made Central Park is located in uptown Manhattan. Central Park is the place to go to see everything from the tranquility of nature to trendy hip-hop-techno culture. Meanwhile, there are free New York philharmonic concerts being held at the park in summer, and dance students practice their art on the marble floor under the gazebo. There's an audience for it all. We also can't forget that the Daly Lama gave a speech on humanism in Central Park as well. (Make a note of it, if you have any interest in purchasing any property around in this area, you can start by paying in the low seven-figure-numbers.)
All the horse and buggy chariots get decorated with flowers and wait for lovers to get snowed in at Central Park in winter. You can only imagine how beautiful winter is in New York during the Christmas season, especially watching people ice skate at Rockefeller Center Plaza.
Back in lower Manhattan, you can hear people speaking a variety of languages, while you go in and out of the various galleries in Soho. There, boutique shops have fashionable outfits and shoes that compete with those found in 5th Avenue stores.
Beautiful cafes play everything from classical music to modern jazz. Pick your music and stop for a cocktail. The mixture of people laughing and drinking anything from bottled water to exotic java acts like a magnet for tourists.
Little Italy has more visitors than the United Nations Center. They coax visitors into their restaurants by serving a variety of appetizing Italian foods. Then take any street that exits to West Broadway to see fake name brand merchandize shops. They cater to customers with "champagne tastes," but "beer pocketbooks".
If Soho represents exotic European flavor, the Village typifies the American modern under-ground culture, in areas such as music and social issues. After admiring and reminiscing about American Immigration, while viewing the Lady of Liberty" in Battery Park, you can turn your attention to the monument built to honor Korean War soldiers. We stand in front of the wall and thank all those people who contributed to defending Korea during the Korean War, as we take pride in our Korean ancestry.
Going along with snooty uptown society culture, from time to time, the Metropolitan Museum presents five thousand years of Korean art. The Guggenheim museum is well known to all of us, due to video artist, Pak Nam Juns exhibition.
Symbolic of such proud American intellectual achievements are Columbia University and New York University, both of which produce excellent writers.
For a lifetime experience, be sure to take in at least see one Broadway show or a Lincoln Center performance1x There is also one place that you shouldn't miss visiting while you are Downtown. Wall Street not only represents the center of American capitalism, it figures prominently on the worlds economic scene. Then, most important of all, take a number seven (#7) train from Wall Street to Flushing. There you will feel you are back in Korea, for Flushing's Korean town has the most congested Korean population anywhere besides in Korea itself.
After all, New York had spectacular fire works this last American Independence Day Festival. They spent 10,080 hours preparing for the 60,034 fireworks needed to make a new sun in the Manhattan sky.
