Chinatown's atmosphere and frenetic pace is unlike anywhere else in Manhattan. Barely on the respectable side of dingy, the streets are nevertheless safe as the local Chinese merchants make sure the neighborhood's lifeblood--the tourist trade--is kept lively. It's the one neighborhood in Manhattan where even native New Yorkers are looked at by the locals as the gawking tourists and the interlopers they are.

One block in Chinatown straddles what it once was and what it is now. On the east is bustling Mott Street, the main street of Chinatown. On the west, overlooking gray Columbus Park, are some reminders of the Italian immigrants who the Chinese have replaced. And straddling the two worlds is Transfiguration Church, which has seen all the changes for 150 years.

Text and Photos by Shawn McIntosh