Chinatown, unfolding just south of Little Italy, is New York City’s most populous ethnic neighborhood, thrumming with more than 200,000 residents. Pungent, noisy Canal Street, littered with stalls selling everything from embroidered slippers to fake Gucci bags, cuts through the neighborhood’s cacophonous heart. Chinatown’s chief draws are the bargain shopping and Chinese cuisine, both of which you can indulge in to your heart’s content at the plethora of stalls, shops, food carts, and restaurants lining the streets and alleyways. Sure, you often have to put up with mounds of trash, car fumes, and shuffling along at a snail’s pace amid throngs of pedestrians, but that’s all part of the Chinatown experience. Bustling Mott Street, along with Canal, Bayard, and Bowery, draws oodles of diners in search of cheap Asian eats. Start your morning with fragrant dim sum dumplings, China’s answer to brunch, at one of the neighborhood’s massive, airplane hangar-sized dim sum restaurants, or dine on steaming platters of wok-fried chicken and pork at a cozy Cantonese eatery. As for the shops, you name it, they sell it (or pirated versions, anyway). Check the merchandise carefully, particularly electronics and watches, where the too-good-to-be-true prices often translate into iffy quality. For most everything else, however, from silk scarves and nail polish to Chinese lanterns and I [heart] New York souvenirs, Chinatown offers the best bargains in New York. If you’re in town during Chinese New Year, usually in late January or early February, come check out the neighborhood’s vibrant celebrations, complete with colorful dragon parades and fireworks.