唐人街是美国最大的华人聚居地,也是旧金山最著名的街区。这里安全、紧凑、五彩缤纷,充满了生活的气息。唐人街的入口是在布什大街上格兰特街的南端,大门以绿瓦盖顶,几条生动的龙很有中国的味道。格兰特街是社区内主要的街道,密布着商店、餐馆,绚丽的门面吸引着游客和市民。中国文化中心举办华裔美国人的各种展览,也安排唐人街历史游、唐人街美食游。华人历史会社讲述着唐人街的历史和华人在美国的艰难岁月,各种文献记载也证明了华人社区对旧金山历史的贡献。唐人街最好玩的街区就是韦弗利广场。这里的许多建筑都是由华人慈善组织捐助修建的。罗斯巷则是深藏在街区中狭窄弄巷的典型,不时有甜点心的香味从巷里飘出。太平洋遗产博物馆也是值得一看的。
纽约的唐人街英文介绍
On the surface, Chinatown is prosperous - a "model slum," some have called it - with the lowest crime rate, highest employment and least juvenile delinquency of any city district. Walk through its crowded streets at any time of day, and every shop is doing a brisk and businesslike trade: restaurant after restaurant is booming; there are storefront displays of shiny squids, clawing crabs and clambering lobster; and street markets offer overflowing piles of exotic green vegetables, garlic and ginger root. Chinatown has the feel of a land of plenty, and the reason why lies with the Chinese themselves: even here, in the very core of downtown Manhattan, they have been careful to preserve their own way of dealing with things, preferring to keep affairs close to the bond of the family and allowing few intrusions into a still-insular culture. There have been several concessions to Westerners - storefront signs now offer English translations, and Haagen Dazs and Baskin Robbins ice-cream stores have opened on lower Mott Street - but they can't help but seem incongruous. The one time of the year when Chinatown bursts open is during the Chinese New Year festival, held each year on the first full moon after January 19, when a giant dragon runs down Mott Street to the accompaniment of firecrackers, and the gutters run with ceremonial dyes.
Beneath the neighborhood's blithely prosperous facade, however, there is a darker underbelly. Sharp practices continue to flourish, with traditional extortion and protection rackets still in business. Non-union sweatshops - their assembly lines grinding from early morning to late into the evening - are still visited by the US Department of Labor, who come to investigate workers' testimonies of being paid below minimum wage for seventy-plus-hour work weeks. Living conditions are abysmal for the poorer Chinese - mostly recent immigrants and the elderly - who reside in small rooms in overcrowded tenements ill-kept by landlords. Yet, because the community has been cloistered for so long and has only just begun to seek help from city officials for its internal problems, you won't detect any hint of difficulties unless you reside in Chinatown for a considerable length of time.