Chinatown welcoming year of rooster

NEW YORK — The year of the rooster begins Feb. 9, and the Lunar New Year will be observed all over Chinatown during the first two weeks of February. Firecracker demonstrations, lion dancers, a parade and a flower market are among the festivities planned to mark the holiday.

Lanterns are strung throughout the streets, and the Chinese characters for good fortune and prosperity are posted on many buildings.

You don’t have to be here for the new year to experience Chinatown, though. The neigh-borhood’s hustle and bustle; exotic markets; and authentic, inexpensive food can be sampled any time of year. Just take the subway to Canal Street and start walking.

Head in any direction for some of the city’s best shops and restaurants as well as a close look at a living, breathing part of New York’s long history of ethnic migration and cultural transformation.

You’ll quickly find yourself in the midst of a typical Chinatown scene — throngs of people cutting every which way; vendors manning sidewalk tables and tiny stalls, selling everything: Gucci purses (ersatz or otherwise), tofu cakes and fruit you didn’t even know existed; and enough traffic to make you think you’re in a parking lot.

The pace of the neighbor-hood is so frenetic that it sometimes can be hard to flag down busy passers-by for directions, so pick up a map at the Chinatown Visitors Kiosk at the intersection of Canal, Walker and Baxter streets.

Along with other parts of downtown Manhattan, China-town experienced an economic downturn after September 11, from which it has not fully recovered.

The kiosk and an informative Web site that lists New Year’s events and other attractions — at www.explore chinatown.com — are part of an effort by city officials to make the area more accessible to out-of-towners.

If you’re looking for an elegant gift (or a rest from the chaos on the street), a good place to stop is Kam Man Food Products at 200 Canal St., near Mott Street. The store is primarily a supermarket, so don’t let the hundreds of jars filled with things you’ve never seen before put you off.

Make your way downstairs, and you’ll find a cornucopia of beautiful and wonderfully inexpensive Asian-style plates, cups, teapots, cookware and other goodies. For even more gift items, go to the Mall of Great Wall at Broadway and Canal.

Stroll farther down Canal Street to Mott Street, the heart of one of the nation’s largest Chinese enclaves. Both sides of the street are lined with stores overflowing with all types of merchandise — postcards, bamboo plants, toys and electronics, Buddhas, jewelry, silk jackets.

Chinatown is a miniature Asian melting pot, attracting immigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam and elsewhere.

Keep an eye out for the large Taiwanese flag at 62 Mott St. over the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, an umbrella group for the many family and village associations that dot the neighborhood.

Many of the area’s political decisions are made behind the association’s doors, and its president is sometimes referred to as the mayor of Chinatown.

If you’re thirsty, stop at any of the tea cafes that line Mott Street. They specialize in bubble tea — milky iced tea with balls of tapioca at the bottom. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but it’s worth trying.

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