Sex and the City

4. Chinatown

New York, NY

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Chinatown, on the border of the Lower East Side and Little Italy, is the real locale where Miranda and Steve have words. That scene takes place at the Good World Bar and Grill. Although it was an Italian restaurant in the movie, in reality it was a Swedish-themed bar built in an old barbershop that has since closed down. Chinatown is home to the largest number of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere. It started around 1858, when a man named Ah Ken arrived on the shores of Manhattan and opened a cigar shop. Later immigrants followed his lead, eventually dominating the cigar industry. Other Chinese came to New York from the West coast to escape discriminatory laws that hindered their employment opportunities. Some of the first businesses in New York's Chinatown included hand laundries and restaurants that established on Mott, Park, Pell and Doyers streets. In 1870, there were about 200 Chinese people in New York, but by 1900 the population had grown to 7,000 (with only about 200 women). Gangs grew and cooperated with different legitimate associations that helped the community and controlled various parts of Chinatown. The only park in Manhattan's Chinatown is Columbus park, built in the middle of the infamous Five Points neighborhood. Five points was depicted in the movie "Gangs of New York" as the most dangerous slum in immigrant New York. In 1965, the government passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, relaxing restrictions on Asian immigration, causing Chinatown's population to reach nearly one-hundred thousand by the turn of the century. The main businesses here are groceries, fish shops, supermarkets, banks, jewelry, tourism, and restaurants. Another popular destination, and characterized as too low end for the Sex and the City girls to shop- is where the street vendors along Canal Street sell fake designer perfumes, watches, and another Carrie favorite, purses.