Chinatown in New York, Manhattan

Chinatown, Manhattan

Manhattan's Chinatown, home to the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, is the oldest of at least 9 Chinatowns in the New York metropolitan area.

Manhattan's Chinatown is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, bordering the Lower East Side to its east, Little Italy to its north, Civic Center to its south, and Tribeca to its west. Chinatown is home to the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere With an estimated population of 90,000 to 100,000 people, Manhattan's Chinatown is also one of the oldest Chinese ethnic enclaves. The Manhattan Chinatown is one of nine Chinatown neighborhoods in New York City, as well as one of twelve in the New York metropolitan area, which contains the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, comprising an estimated 819,527 uniracial individuals as of 2014.

All the pictures have been taken by Elena.

Historically, Chinatown was primarily populated by Cantonese speakers. 

Chinatown, Broome street.

In the 1980s and 1990s, large numbers of Fuzhounese-speaking immigrants also arrived and formed a sub-neighborhood annexed to the eastern portion of Chinatown, which has become known as Little Fuzhou.

Flags of the U.S. France and Chinatown.

 As many Fuzhounese and Cantonese speakers now speak Mandarin—the official language in China and Taiwan—in addition to their native languages, this made it more important for Chinatown residents to learn and speak Mandarin. 

Although now overtaken in size by the rapidly growing Flushing Chinatown, located in the nearby borough of Queens – also within New York City – the Manhattan Chinatown remains a dominant cultural force for the Chinese diaspora.

The neighborhood is also home to the Museum of Chinese in America and as the headquarters of numerous publications based both in the U.S. and China that are geared to overseas Chinese.

The Manhattan Chinatown is one of nine Chinatown neighborhoods in New York City, as well as one of twelve in the New York metropolitan area

Monument to Lin Ze Nu (1785-1850). In memory of the Americans of Chinese Ancestry who lost their lives in defense of freedom and democracy

Kathay Bank. Here live the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, enumerating an estimated 800,000 individuals. 

Mosco and Mulberry corner. The remaining Chinatowns are located in the boroughs of Queens (up to four, depending upon definition) and Brooklyn (three) and in Nassau County, all on Long Island in New York State.

There are also Chinatowns in in Edison and Parsippany-Troy Hills in New Jersey.

Mulberry street.Manhattan's Little Fuzhou an enclave populated primarily by more recent Chinese immigrants from the Fujian Province of China

Manhattan's Chinatown Pagoda.

Some boroughs are technically considered a part of Manhattan's Chinatown, albeit now developing a separate identity of its own.

Pell street.  new and rapidly growing Chinese community is now forming in East Harlem, Uptown Manhattan, nearly tripling in population between the years 2000 and 2010.

Place of Freedom.

The city of New York has the nation's largest Chinese American population by a wide margin.

This area is the primary destination for new Chinese immigrants. 

 After the City of New York itself, the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn encompass the largest Chinese populations, respectively, of all municipalities in the United States.

Financial Paradox

Financial Paradox - Some Reflections

Today, closed-end funds are no longer an especially attractive investment opportunity. They illustrate however an important paradox about investment advice, as well as the maxim that true values do eventually prevail in the market. There is a fundamental paradox about the usefulness of investment advice concerning specific securities. If the advice reaches enough people and they act on it, knowledge of the advice destroys its usefulness. If everyone knows about a "good buy" and they rush in to buy, the price of the "good buy" will rise until it is no longer particularly attractive for investment. Indeed, there will be pressure on the price to rise as long as it is still a good buy.

This is the main logical pillar on which the efficient-market theory rests. If the spread of news is unimpeded, prices will react quickly so that they reflect all that is known about the particular situation. This led us to predict that such favorable discounts would not always be available, and we would be very surprised to see the levels of discounts perpetuate themselves indefinitely. For the same reason we are skeptical that very simple currently popular rules such as "buy low P/E stocks" or "buy small company stocks" will perpetually produce unusually high risk-adjusted returns.

There is a well-known academic story about the random walk of a finance professor and two of his students. The finance professor, a proponent of the strongest form of the random-walk theory, was convinced that markets were always perfectly efficient. When he and the students spotted a $10 bill lying on the street, he told them to ignore it. "If it was really a $10 bill," he reasoned out loud, "someone would have already picked it up." Fortunately, the students were skeptical, not only of Wall Street professionals, but also of learned professors, and so they picked up the money.

Montreal, Old Port, random-walkers... Photo by Elena.

Clearly, there is considerable logic to the finance professor's position. In markets where intelligent people are searching for value, it is unlikely that people will perpetually leave $10 bills around ready for the taking. But history tells us that unexploited opportunities do exist from time to time, as do periods of speculative excess pricing. We know of Dutchmen paying astronomical prices for tulip bulbs, of Englishmen splurging on the most improbable bubbles, and of modern institutional fund managers who convinced themselves that some stocks were so "nifty" that any price was reasonable. And while investors were building castles in the air, real fundamental investment opportunities such as closed-end funds were passed by.

Yet eventually excessive valuations were corrected and eventually investors did snatch up the bargain closed-end funds. Perhaps the finance professor's advice should have been, "You had better pick the $10 bill up quickly because if it's really there, someone else will surely take it." It is in this sense that we must consider ourselves random walkers. We are convinced that true value will out, but from time to time it doesn't surprise that anomalies do exist. There may be some $10 bills around at times and we should certainly interrupt our random walk to purposefully stoop and pick them up.

It is clear that the ability to beat the average consistently is very rare. Neither fundamental analysis of a stock's firm foundation of value not technical analysis of the market's propensity for building castles in the air can produce reliable superior results. Even the pros must hide their heads in shame when they compare their results with those obtained by the dart-board method of picking stocks. The only way to achieve above-average returns in an efficient market is to assume greater risk. But risk is far from a simple concept and neither beta no any other single risk measure is likely to be adequate.

Sensible investment policies for individuals must then be developed in two steps. First, it is crucially important to understand the risk-return trade-offs that are available and to tailor your choice of securities to your temperament and requirements. Most investors will not be convinced however, that the random-walk theory is valid. Telling an investor that there is no hope of beating the averages is like telling a six-year-old there is no Santa Claus. It takes the zing out of life.

High Park's blues sakura flowers. Photo by Elena.

For those incurably smitten with the speculative bug, who insist on picking individual stocks in an attempt to beat the market, we can offer some rules. The odds are really stacked against you, but you may just get lucky and win big. We also suggest that you might want to place your bets on the few rare investment managers who, at least in the past, have shown some talent for finding those rare $10 bills lying around in the marketplace.

Investing is a bit like lovemaking. Ultimately it is really an art requiring a certain talent and the presence of a mysterious force called luck. Indeed, luck may by 99 percent responsible for the success of the very few people who have beaten the averages. "Although men flatter themselves with their great actions," La Rochefoucauld wrote, "they are not so often the result of great design as of chance."

The game of investing is like lovemaking in another important respect, too. It's much too much fun to give up. If you have the talent to recognize stocks that have good value, and the art to recognize a story that will catch the fancy of others, it's a great feeling to see the market vindicate you. Even if you are not so lucky, strict rules will help you limit your risks and avoid much of the pain that is sometimes involved in the playing. If you know you will either win or at least not lose too much, you will be able to play the game with more satisfaction. At the very least, we hope these recommendations make the game all the more enjoyable.

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park

4 million visitors per year – 1,170 square miles – Home of the giant sequoia. Yosemite National Park, CA.

Yosemite's majestic granite peaks, groves of ancient giant sequoia trees, and waterfalls, including Yosemite Falls,which at a height of 2,425 feet is the nation's highest inspired some of the earliest attempts at conservation in the United States. In 1864, Congress enacted laws protecting the valley. Journalist Horace Greeley, who once visited this park, noted that he knew of “no single wonder of Nature on earth which can claim a superiority over the Yosemite.” And naturalist John Muir, whose efforts led to the park's formation, said of the valley. “Not temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite.”

The enormous park occupies an area comparable to Rhode Island, with elevations of up to 13,114 feet.

Peak season tips: During the busy summer months, forgo the sights and splendors of the seven-mile Yosemite Valley, which attracts the hordes.

Camping: Of the 18 campgrounds in Yosemite, the 5 main ones in the valley offer “refugee-style camping” - over campsites crammed into a singularly unspectacular half-mile. For more space and better views, head for the hills and try one of the eight Tioga Road campgrounds. There also are five tent camps about a day's hike from one another on the High Sierra Loop Trail. Campers can obtain meals, showers, and cots there. Reservations via Yosemite Reservations are advised.

Reservations also are required year-round in Yosemite Valley's auto campground and for Hodgdon Meadow, Crane Flat, and Tuolumne,  Meadows campgrounds. All other campgrounds are operated on a first-come, first-served basis. Camping reservations may be made up to, but no earlier than, eight weeks in advance through Mistix. Reservable campsites fill up quickly from mid-May to mid-September. Your best bet for snagging a spot is to start calling the Mistix reservation number at 7 a.m. Pacific Standard Time eight weeks in advance of the date you want to camp. 

Best one-day trip: Avoid the congested route to Yosemite Valley. Instead, grab a tour bus and get off either at shuttle stop 7, for an easy half-mile, 20-minute hike to Lower Yosemite Falls, or shuttle bus stop 8, for a strenuous one- to three-hour round-trip hike to Upper Yosemite Falls. Other sites include the Native American Yosemite Village and El Capitan, a 2,000-foot face crawling with little black specks which, on closer inspection, turn out to be rock climbers.

In fact, the dramatic domes and soaring pinnacles in Yosemite make it one of the best places in the world for rock climbing. The Yosemite Mountaineering School and Guide Service offers beginning through advanced classes in the summer.

Nice park... Photo by Elena.

Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park

5 million visitors per year – 1,904 square miles – the 277-mile canyon is nearly a mile deep in places. Grand Canyon, aZ 86023.

A Grand Canyon sunset is glorious, but even during the day, the canyon walls' many layers of stone refract hues of red, yellow, and green light. On a good day, you can see 200 miles across vast mesas, forests, and the Colorado River.

The park consists of three different areas: the North Rim, the South Rim, and the Inner Canyon, which is accessible only by foot, boat, or mule. The North Rim and the South Rim are only 9 miles apart as the eagle files, but 214 miles by road.

The different rims are located in entirely different temperate climate zones. The North Rim on average is 1,000 feet higher and is heavily forested with blue spruce and alpine vegetation. It is open only from May to late October. The more popular South Rim is closer to population centers and has the juniper bushes and Gambel oak typical of the arid Southwest. The Inner Canyon is desertlike; temperatures there often exceed 110 degrees in the summer.

Follow the trails! One-and two-day mule rides are a somewhat bumpy alternative to hiking the Grand Canyon. Avoid rides in the summer, when temperatures can reach 118 degrees. Two-days trips start at the South Rim. Photo by Elena.

Peak season tips: The South Rim is crowded all year. To escape the masses, take one of the many trails off East Rim Drive to a private spot overlooking the canyon, or try the North Rim. Which receives only ten percent of the park's visitors.

Camping: Lodging reservations South Rim, including Phantom Ranch, North Rim Lodging reservations. Recorded general park info is available.

Best one-day trip: The West Rim Drive offers wonderful views of the main canyon. In the summer, it is open only to buses, which can be taken from the visitor center. A paved trail runs along the South Rim offering an easy bike. All hikes into the canyon are strenuous. Of them, only the Bright Angel and the South Kaibab trails are regularly maintained.

Best experience: A raft ride down the Colorado River is a great way to enjoy the splendor of the canyon. Motorboat trips take 7 to 10 days, raft trips take 10 to 12 days, and trips on wooden dories usually last 18 days, though 3- to 8-days partial trips can be arranged. Write the park superintendent for a complete list of outfitters licensed by the National Park Service.

Great Smoky Montains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

10 million visitors per year – 800 square miles – Largest national park east of the Rockies – 107 Park Headquarters Rd, Gatlinburg, TN.

A world unto itself, Great Smoky Mountains National Park has over 1,500 species of flowering plants, 10 percent of which are considered rare, and over 125 species of trees – more than in all of Europe. In addition, there are 200 species of birds, about 50 species of fish, and 60 species of mammals, including wild hogs and black bears.A hike or divre from mountain base to peak is equivalent to the entire length of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in terms of the number of species of trees and plants – every 250 feet of elevation is roughly equivalent to 1,000 miles of distance on the trail. A quarter of the park is virgin forest, the largest concentration east of the Mississippi. Some of the trees are up to 8 feet in diameter.

In addition to its natural attributes, Great Smoky Mountains is one of the most interesting national parks in the United States historically, with farms, churches, cabins, and working grist mills left by the mountain people who moved away when the park was established in 1934. The park has been designated a United Nations International Biosphere Reserve as well as a World Historical Site.

Peak season tips

 During the summer, in the lower elevations, expect haze, humidity, and afternoon temperatures in the 90s – and terrible traffic jams. Cades Cove, the less spectacular but more historically interesting section of the park, is generally less crowded in the summer.

Old and abandoned farms abound here. Photo by Elena.

Camping

Reservations are required May 15 through October 31 for Elkmont, Smokemont, and Cades Cove campgrounds. Contact Mistix Sites at other campgrounds are on a first-come, first-served basis. Stay of up to 7 days are allowed from mid-May through October, and up to 14 days the rest of year. Rarely filled are the Look Rock and Cosby campgrounds, which are in more remote parts of the park. Also of note is the LeConte Lodge, located on the park's third-highest peak (elevation, 6,593 feet), a six-hour hike from the main road. Accommodations are sometimes in cabins with no electricity or running water, but no include beds and hot meals. The lodge is open from late March through mid-November.

Best one-day trip

Entering the park from Gatlinburg, continue on US 441, and stop at the Newfoundland Gap, where there are spectacular views of the mountains. From there, turn onto Clingmans Dome Road (closed in the winter), which ends at a parking lot where there is a strenuous half-mile hike to a lookout tower atop 6,643-foot Clingmans Dome – the highest peak in the park. Back on US 441, continue to the Smokemont Campground where the easy, two-mile Chasten Creek Falls Trail meanders along a stream through a hardwood forest ending at one of the park's many waterfalls.

Best experience

The Great Smokies is one of the premier places in the East to enjoy magnificent fall foliage. The season lasts from September through October. Peak time: October 15 to October 31.