After my strolls through Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, compliments of Louis Vuitton-sponsored Soundwalk audio guides, I wondered what Soundwalk might offer me in my own backyard. Avoiding Thanksgiving weekend marathon shopping like the plague, I logged on and found one option that I couldn't resist: a walk through Manhattan's Chinatown.
Would a jaunt through this Asian immigrant neighborhood be as magical as my wanderings through the real thing? It was a beautiful day. Why not download the tour onto my iPod, jump on the F train and find out?
And, for all of 12 bucks for the download, I wasn't disappointed. It may not have been as haunting as the alleys of Hong Kong, the secret gardens of Shanghai or the hutong passageways of Beijing, but the nonetheless the tour showed me scenes of Chinatown that I'd never known.
From visiting the grand Judaic hold-out known as the Eldridge Street Synagogue, to glancing at the dank offices where new immigrants from China line up for menial day jobs, I followed the tour across busy thoroughfares, down crooked side-streets and through underground mini-malls. There was a brief pit stop at the 88 year-old Nom Wah Tea Parlor on Doyers for one of their famous, crumbly Almond Cookies, costing a mere 60 cents. But, the real highlight was a pit stop of a different kind, one filled with incense and golden Buddhas.
My visit to the Mahayana Buddhist Temple wasn't quite as stirring as my call on Man Mo on Hong Kong's Hollywood Road. Still, I was mighty intrigued seeing worshipers not only bring oranges, pineapples, bread and sweets as sacrifices to their ancestors, but bottles of vegetable oil as well.
No explanation on the audio tape was found.
Fascinating all the same.
Don't know if I'll end up downloading any more Soundwalk New York City tours. But I do know that I'll never look at vegetable oil quite the same way again.
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