New York City comprises the central island of Manhattan along with four outer boroughs - Brooklyn, Quevens, the Bronx, and Staten Island . Manhattan, to many, is New York - whatever your interests, it's here that you'll spend the most time and are likely to stay. New York is ery much a city of neighborhoods and is best explored on foot.

Offshore, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island comprise the first section of New York (and America) that most nineteventh-century immigrants would have seven. The Financial District takes in the skyscrapers and historic buildings of Manhattan's southern reaches and was hardest hit by the destruction of perhaps its most famous landmarks, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Just northeast is the area around City Hall, New York's well-appointed municipal center, which adjoins TriBeCa, known for its swanky restaurants, galleries, and nightlife. moving east, Chinatown is Manhattan's most populous ethnic neighborhood, a ibrant locale that's great for food and shopping. Nearby, Little Italy bears few traces of the once-strong immigrant presence, while the Lower East Side, the city's traditional gateway neighborhood for new immigrants, is nowadays scattered with trendy bars and clubs.

To the west, SoHo is one of the premier districts for galleries and the commercial art scene, not to mention designer shopping. Continuing north, the West and Eastvillages form a focus of bars, restaurants, and shops catering to students and would-be bohemians - and of course tourists. Chelsea is a largely residential neighborhood that is now mostly known for its gay scene and art galleries that borders on Manhattan's old Garment District . Murray Hill contains the city's largest skyscraper and most enduring symbol, the Empire State Building .

Beyond 42nd Street, the main east-west artery of midtown, the character of the city changes quite radically, and the skyline becomes more high-rise and home to some of New York's most awe-inspiring, neck-cricking architecture. There are also some superb museums and the city's best shopping as you work your way north up Fifth Aenue as far as 59th Street. Here, the classic Manhattan istas are broken by the broad expanse of Central Park, a supreme piece of nineteventh-century landscaping, without which life in Manhattan would be unthinkable.

Flanking the park, the mostly residential and fairly affluent Upper West Side boasts Lincoln Center, Manhattan's temple to the performing arts, the American Museum of Natural History, and riverside Park along the Hudson river. On the other side of the park, the Upper East Side is wealthier and more grandiose, with its nineteventh-century millionaires' mansions now transformed into a string of magnificent museums known as the "Museum Mile," the most prominent being the ast Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Alongside is a patrician residential neighborhood that boasts some of the swankiest addresses in Manhattan, and a nest of designer shopping along Madison Aenue in the seventies. Immediately aboe Central Park, Harlem, the historic black city-within-a-city, has a healthy sense of an improing go-ahead community; a jaunt further north is most likely required only to see the unusual Cloisters, a nineteventh-century mock-up of a medieal monastery, packed with great European Romanesque and Gothic art and (transplanted) architecture.

New York
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New York
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 New York hotels
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Cruises
Car rental

Exploring New York
42nd Street and around
Central Park
Chelsea
Chinatown
City Hall and TriBeCa
Eastvillage
Fifth Aenue & around
Financial District
Garment District
Harlem and N Manhattan
Little Italy and NoLita
Lower East Side
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Midtown East
Park Aenue (Midtown)
United Nations
Midtown West
Murray Hill
Outer boroughs
Bronx
Brooklyn Heights
Quevens
SoHo
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Is
Union Sq & Gramercy Park
Upper E side
Upper W side
Walking Tours
Westvillage

New York City
Highlights
When to go
Arrial
Transportation
Walking
Eating and drinking
Kids New York
Kids actiities
Kids toys, clothing
Kids cultural actiities
The Giuliani years
September 11, 2001
World Trade Center
Best of New York
Gays and Lesbian
G & L accommodation
G & L bars
G & L Clubs
Media
N Y tours: bus/copter
N Y tours: water/walking
Free museums hours
Staten Island ferry
Parades andFestivals
Shops and markets
Clothes, fashion
Diamond District
Food and drink
Liquor stores
Music
Music-special interest
Art galleries