Chinatown, Theater District, and Leather District

The heart of Asian American life in Boston beats in Chinatown, with its authentic restaurants, cultural festivals, markets, and, of course, thousands of residents. Reportedly, it's the third-largest Chinatown in the United States, after those in San Francisco and Manhattan, although today's neighborhood runs the spectrum of many Far East cultures, from Thai to Taiwanese, Korean to Cambodian.

Before the 1870s, the area was resettled a few times as immigrant groups moved in and out: Syrian, Irish, Jewish, Italian. Chinese laborers arrived and settled here after 1870, and their families kept coming through the 1950s. Today, Beach Street serves as Chinatown's main street. The neighborhood is bounded by Essex, Washington, Lincoln, and Marginal streets; the Tufts Medical Center complex occupies approximately one-third of the area.

Just west of Chinatown, the Theater District is fertile ground for Boston's performing arts scene—traditional, avant-garde, and otherwise. Bounded by Washington and West streets, Marginal Road, and Charles Street South, each theater—the Wang, the Shubert, the Majestic, the Colonial, the Wilbur, the Paramount, the Modern, the Charles Playhouse, and the Opera House—has a history all its own, and most have been restored within the last two decades. Emerson College and its campus occupy a large part of the neighborhood, and student interest brings in some acts from around the world. Night owls can enjoy stand-up shows at a few comedy clubs or feel the beat at a variety of dance and nightclubs.

And, then, to the east of Chinatown, a very small enclave known as the Leather District is bounded by Kneeland Street, Essex Street, Atlantic Avenue, and Lincoln Street. This corner of Downtown is probably the best place in downtown Boston to get an idea of what the city's business center looked like in the late 19th century (it was a wholesale supply area for raw materials in the days when the shoe industry was a regional economic mainstay). Today, a few leather firms remain, but most warehouses now contain expensive loft apartments. Other notable spots include o ya (the city's best sushi restaurant) and South Station.