This earned me an extra two hours to explore the Financial District. Walking north through the park, I soon entered a commanding fortress. Built in 1812, Castle Clinton was designed to protect New York against a British invasion. I continued north along the famed Wall Street stock exchange district, past its famed bull statue, to the hallowed Ground Zero.<\/p>\n
Financial district. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
New York has done a fine job of turning this into not just a site of mourning, but also one of inspiration, education and hope. I paused to pay homage at the 9\/11 Memorial, where water cascades into two huge pools which occupy the spots of the South and North Towers that were erased by the 2001 terrorist attack. To deepen my knowledge of this tragedy, I joined a 90-minute guided tour ($140) of the adjacent 9\/11 Memorial Museum, which tells personal tales of those affected.<\/p>\n
9-11 Memorial Museum. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
My mood was then lifted by visiting Ground Zero\u2019s newest attraction, the $1 billion Perelman Performing Arts Centre. Covered in thousands of shimmering marble tiles, I found this facility photogenic inside and out, and had an early dinner at its chic Metropolis by Marcus Samuelsson restaurant. Finally, given history was the theme of my day, I had a few frosty beers at one of this city\u2019s oldest pubs, the charmingly timeworn Fraunces Tavern.<\/p>\n
Day 2 | Lower Manhattan<\/p>\n
New York has been so greatly influenced by its Chinese community that this city has no less than nine Chinatowns. Including perhaps the world\u2019s most famous one, here in lower Manhattan. Although this area is gradually reducing in size, due to property developers gobbling up its ultra-valuable land, it remains energetic, interesting and laden with addictive food.<\/p>\n
From Chinatown to Central Park, he eats, walks and people-watches like a local. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
For lunch, I feasted on salt and pepper chicken wings at Hop Kee, a basic restaurant with brilliant dishes. By that time, I\u2019d already spent hours navigating Chinatown on foot, pausing for a rest in the shade at busy Confucius Plaza park, before becoming absorbed by the Museum of Chinese in America. This slick facility exhibits fascinating vignettes of the lives of extraordinary Chinese Americans. They include America\u2019s first\u202fChinese\u202ffemale dentist, an activist who fought anti-Chinese\u202fracism, an early-1900s farmer who bucked the odds, and a\u202fChinese\u202fwomen\u2019s rights pioneer.<\/p>\n
After lunch, I headed north in search of greenery. Because, amid all its skyscrapers, New York has a trove of majestic parks. Long, slender and filled with sports facilities, Sara D. Roosevelt Park led me towards the quieter Tompkins Square Park.<\/p>\n
NYC abounds with parks. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
This latter green lung is in the heart of the East Village, a charming neighbourhood long famed as a hub for artists and bohemian types, which feels ever-so-different from the Financial District. Heading west from there, I soon heard busker music drifting from Washington Square Park, filled with young people far hipper than me, socialising in the sun.<\/p>\n
Washington Square Park. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Then I took a peek into the adjacent, hallowed grounds of New York University and started to circle back south. On the agenda was seeing some of the world\u2019s most expensive homes in the ultra-exclusive neighbourhoods of SoHo and Tribeca. Which brought me back down near Chinatown to the adjoining food mecca of Little Italy. I had to waddle home like an obese duck after a feast of veal chop and chicken gnocchi at this neighbourhood\u2019s classic Il Cortile restaurant.<\/p>\n
Day 3 | Midtown Manhattan<\/p>\n
I pride myself on not sticking to tourist trails, but sometimes you\u2019ve just got to follow the crowds. How could I visit midtown Manhattan for the first time and skip Central Park, Times Square, the Empire State Building, and the High Line?<\/p>\n
The Empire State Building. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
So I began my third day in this megalopolis at the southern section of Central Park. This green space is so colossal \u2013 four times bigger than Auckland Domain \u2013 that it demands being explored in manageable chunks. Its vastness also means that, even in a city of more than 10 million people, you can find pleasing space and solitude here. I paused twice to sit in silence beneath lofty trees, in between visiting the park\u2019s fine zoo, its iconic carousel, and its picturesque pond.<\/p>\n
Strolling south from there, I marvelled at the varied creativity on display in the Museum of Modern Art before taking copious photos of the iconic Radio City Music Hall and the Rockefeller Centre, with its pretty ice rink. From there it was a short walk to the neon signage and swarming crowds of Times Square, which, truth be told, is an unimpressive tourist trap.<\/p>\n
What was not overrated, however, were my next three stops: Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building. That giant rail complex is just as cavernous and magnificent as it looks in countless movies. Meanwhile, the Chrysler Building may just be my favourite skyscraper on the planet. This classical piece of architecture outshone even the Empire State Building, which I decided not to ascend, because of the waiting time of up to an hour to access its 86th and 102nd floor observation decks.<\/p>\n
Soon after, I was wandering the distinctive High Line. Sitting about 9m above street level, this narrow, elevated park stretches for 2.3km, piercing the fashionable neighbourhoods of Chelsea, Hudson Yards, and the Meatpacking District. In the spirit of NYC\u2019s unrivalled multiculturalism, I had a memorable dinner at a Palestinian restaurant in Chelsea called Qanoon. Topped off with a cocktail \u2013 a Manhattan, what else? \u2013 at nearby Twist Bar.<\/p>\n
The writer travelled independently. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This earned me an extra two hours to explore the Financial District. Walking north through the park, I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[68460,68463,6080,15980,68464,41667,20985,5367,68461,75,84,83,93,9,24,63,35878,68467,37834,68462,1292,1280,14829,1281,68466,1068,68465],"class_list":["post-166970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-3day","tag-68463","tag-apple","tag-best","tag-called","tag-hours","tag-how","tag-in","tag-itinerary","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-oconnell","tag-ronan","tag-short","tag-spend","tag-these","tag-things","tag-time","tag-to","tag-writes","tag-york","tag-youre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}