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Following the path of a canal dug in the early 1800s to drain southern Manhattan's contaminated Collect Pond into the Hudson River, this traffic-clogged road connects the Manhattan Bridge to the Holland Tunnel. Befitting the epicenter of Chinatown, a pagoda-shaped visitor’s information booth stands at the intersection of Canal and Mulberry streets. Farther west, however, the street has an overwhelming, open-air-bazaar atmosphere that defines its character. Gray-market vendors hawk knockoff designer purses and shaky bootleg DVDs; hustlers offer Rolexes from coat pockets; and bucketfuls of salted sardines and pungent yellow durian contribute to the sensory overload. Exotic goods in calmer conditions can be had at Kam Man, a two-level marketplace with an easy-to-miss storefront, where everything from chopstick rests to medicinal fungi are labeled in both Chinese and English. Relatively low-rent apartments overlook the storefronts below, while some tarnished jewelry shops still remain at Canal's less-chaotic eastern end, the trade's center until midtown's diamond district came to dominate in the twenties. — Caroline Kinneberg