Canal Street

The basics

As the main drag through Chinatown—and a gateway to other popular downtown neighborhoods, including Tribeca, SoHo, and Little Italy—this is one of Manhattan’s unmissable streets. For many visitors, it’s a key shopping destination, full of bargain “designer” clothes, bags, and accessories. You can also stop off at nearby cultural sights like the Museum of Chinese in America or the Mahayana Buddhist Temple, or come to indulge in everything from soup dumplings and Peking duck to bubble tea and pork buns.

To learn more about its history and culture, walk along Canal Street as part of a tour. The street is a stop on multiple sightseeing itineraries, including personalized shopping tours, Chinatown food tours, and history tours of Little Italy and other Lower Manhattan neighborhoods.

Things to know before you go

• To sample the street’s highlights in one place, head to the Canal Street Market—the cavernous food hall and shopping destination has plenty to see (and taste).

• While Canal Street has wide, level sidewalks, its crowds and street vendors can make access difficult for wheelchair users during busy times.

• If you plan to buy anything from the street’s fruit vendors—or bargain with the vendors selling knock-off designer goods—it’s best to bring cash with you.

How to get there

Thanks to the fact that it stretches across Lower Manhattan, Canal Street has a number of access points. You can take subway lines including the 1, 6, A, C, E, J, N, Q, R, W, and Z trains, as well as a range of bus routes. Taxis and rideshare services offer another way to go.

When to get there

There’s almost never a bad time to visit Canal Street—its streets are full of shoppers and hawkers by day, while its restaurants and bars draw visitors late into the evening. It’s worth going on a good-weather day, though, since its crowded blocks can be even harder to navigate when wielding an umbrella.

Grabbing a bite on Canal Street

Canal Street is one of the top destinations for food lovers visiting Manhattan. Check out Chinatown staples like Joe’s Shanghai (celebrated for its soup dumplings, or xiao long bao), the Canal Street Market, and Dimes, a popular stop among the city’s see-and-be-seen set.