Year of the Dragon – NYC 2012
New York City is a perfect home for intrepid travelers. It’s the city that historically is known for its candid talk and surly abrupt manners or lack of them. And yes, Gotham has again been voted the rudest city in America, but at the same time ranks as Americas No. 1 place for cultural diversity. Can’t win them all. Of course, this is all according to Travel + Leisure Magazine. The cultural diversity is what makes NYC one of the top travel destinations in the U.S. We received over 50 million tourists in 2011, and I’m sure we are well on our way to breaking that record again this year.
Each weekend, there’s always a street fair or parade going on which features one of the many individual cultures found in one or more of the numerous neighborhoods that make up the city. Thousands gathered to celebrate the Year of the Dragon in Chinatown.
Sunday starting at 11:30am, there were big and small gold and red dragons snaking the streets, high school marching bands, Verizon and Casino sponsored floats, and masked individuals scaring away evil spirits in lower Manhattan yesterday. This is a day were children and adults can chase each other with spray sting and shot off countless amounts of confetti poppers on top of parade revelers without having to say sorry or caring about the mess.
The streets and sidewalks get mobbed with locals and tourists. The scene at the corner of Hester and Mott is probably as close to downtown Shanghai as one could imagine when the parade was in full swing. Queen’s gets its go at the parade next weekend. The older rival will have their 16th annual Chinese New Years Parade in Flushing on Saturday February 4th at 11:30 am.
Happy Year of the Dragon!
farflungistan 