China town and Little Italy

650 Words2 Pages

Chinatown and Little Italy

Have you ever taken a stroll down the lower eastside of Manhattan? It’s a great place to be indeed. The many smells of fine Chinese and Italian food flood the streets. Yes this is where the famous Chinatown and Little Italy is located in New York City. There are more then just fine foods, shops, and people. In fact there is a lot of history behind these two towns that many people do not know about. How they came to be and what makes each town unique.
First you have the famous Chinatown. It is the largest Chinatown in the United States. It is favored by Chinese immigrants and has an estimated population between 70,000 to 150,000 people alone. During the mid eighteenth century some Chinese trailers and sailors trickled in but during the beginning of the nineteenth century Chinese arrived in many numbers. They first came into the west coast then were driven to the east because of mobs and discriminations. By 1880, the growing joint in the Five Points slums on the south east side of New York became home to between 200 and 1,100 Chinese. The Chinese from the start clumped together because of racial discrimination. Chinatown was unlike other ghettos because it was largely self supporting. There was a solid system in Chinatown. For example, businesses created jobs for people and economic aid was available. Chinatown was still growing till the end of the nineteenth century. It was getting so bad that something needed to be d...

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