Michael Grosberg - Lonely Planet Discover New York City

Welcome to New York City

Loud, fast and pulsing with energy, New York City (population 8.3 million) is symphonic, exhausting and always evolving. Maybe only a Walt Whitman poem cataloging typical city scenes from the humblest hole-in-the wall to grand buildings could begin to do the city justice.

It remains one of the world's creative and business centers. Fashion, theater, food, music, publishing, advertising and, of course, finance, all thrive here. As Groucho Marx once said, 'When it's 9:30 in New York, it's 1937 in Los Angeles.' Coming to NYC from anywhere else for the first time is like stepping into a movie; one you've probably been unknowingly writing; one that contains all imagined possibilities.

Almost every country in the world has a presence here. From Brooklyn's Russian enclave in Brighton Beach to the mini South America in Queens, and from the middle of Times Square to the most obscure corner of the Bronx, you'll find extremes.

You can experience a little bit of everything. You can decide if you'd like your day to be filled with high culture in an uptown museum and trendy eating in the Village, or if you like your city to be tougher you can choose to spend an afternoon wandering through the twisting streets and art galleries of downtown. Just don't be too shocked if your day of high culture turns gritty when you come across a gifted jazz singer on the subway platform, or if your bohemian day gets fancy when a trendy boutique seduces you and you're shelling out for the perfect pair of shoes before you know it.

New York City is constantly in the process of reinventing itself. And so too are the successive waves of immigrants who have populated the city and the striving artists who have pinned their hopes and dreams on making it here.

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New York City's Top Experiences

Central Park ( )

London has Hyde Park. Paris has the Bois de Boulogne. And New York City has Central Park. One of the world's most renowned green spaces, it checks in with 843 acres of rolling meadows, boulder-studded outcrops, elm-lined walkways, manicured European-style gardens, a lake and a reservoir not to mention an outdoor theater, a memorial to John Lennon, an idyllic waterside eatery (the Loeb Boathouse) and one very famous statue of Alice in Wonderland. The big challenge? Figuring out where to begin.

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Skyscrapers

Ah, the skyscraper mankind's phallic homage to progress. New York City has plenty of 'em, from the imposingly elegant Chrysler Building ( ) facade. And while staring into the city's infinite abyss of twinkling lights from atop a skyscraper ranks high on everyone's to-do list, we often prefer those quintessential New York moments down on the street when the crown of a soaring spire winks hello amid honking taxis.

Empire State Building ( )
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