Chinatown in Philadelphia

According to my front desk friend at the hotel, Philadelphia has the second largest Chinatown in the U.S.  I had already been to the ones in San Francisco and Washington D.C., so I was excited to check out Philly.

It was only about a block from our hotel.  So of course, I had to do some exploring. 

I actually didn't see a single tourist the two days I walked around Chinatown.  But then again, it was a couple of unusually cold and rainy days in a row.

One morning Paul and I ran through Chinatown and saw an elderly group of Asian women doing an exercise in which they did some slow, methodical dancing.  It was very interesting.

Some of the buildings were very ornate.  This poor building was more decrepit than you can tell from the picture.

Same building below.  You can see in the corner that it used to be a YMCA back in the day.  A shame that it is going to waste now.  I wonder what happened to lead it to this. 

One day I had a late lunch from this Dim Sum restaurant.  I had a delicious noodle soup with tofu and bok choy.  It was spicy and warmed me up after being chilled all day.  The proportion was HUGE for $6.  I could only eat half of it, despite how much I loved the flavor.  Yes, I am an adventurous eater, and I adore trying unlikely street restaurants. 

Here are the goodies I picked up at various shops in Chinatown.  I confess that some of them were not very palatable.  One of the candies, in particular, was inedible.  But it was fun to try new things.  Perhaps I should have brought back a bunch of Dim Sum instead? 

 

Readers, have you ever been to a Chinatown?