Understand
Gayborhood is located within Center City East. It is a square, taking up from about Broad and Walnut about 11th and Pine. Gayborhood is comprised of bars, restaurants and has a bookstore with its very own history: Giovanni's Room James Baldwin wrote a book with this title; he based it on the bookstore. Some places that attract large crowds are Woody's Wednesday is college night, Pure and 12th Street Gym.
Chinatown is also located within Center City East, just blocks away from the Convention Center and Reading Terminal. Compared to the Chinatown of other cities, Philadelphia's is fairly small. An important landmark to the town is the Friendship Gate, located at 10th and Arch streets. Chinatown is filled with restaurants, bakeries and gift shops. Some restaurants include Penang, Sang Kee, Banana Leaf and Tai Lake. Bakeries include Asia Bakery, Hong Kong Bakery, Mong Kok Station Bakery and KC Pastries. Many goods include milk tea, bubble tea also known as boba tea egg tarts, pork buns, steamed buns, chicken buns and pineapple buns.
Washington Square West is also located within Center City East: 7th to Broad Street, Chestnut to South Street, squished in between Rittenhouse Square and Old City/Society Hill. Home of Antique Row and Mid-Town Village, two great shopping districts. Historic cobbled streets, theaters, restaurants and more.
Washington Square
is composed of several distinct neighborhoods and is convenient to America's most historic square mile. Washington Square West is a lively neighborhood, while east of the park is a bit more sedate. Antique Row, Pine Street between about 13th and 9th Streets, is full of interesting shops, not all of them antiques-oriented. Washington Square itself is worth a visit to see the tomb of the unknown Revolutionary War soldier. This neighborhood is a good place to see Philadelphia's native style of house, the "trinity" -- two, three, or four floors, one room per floor, connected by spiral stairs. The small streets above Pine, such as Quince Street, are lined with trinities. WalkPhiladelphia (http://centercityphila.or...) offers several interesting tours of Wash West.The Gayborhood
is Philadelphia's gay-friendly area overlapping the officially designated Washington Square West neighborhood. The Gayborhood (http://phillypride.org/ga...) is most strongly associated with 12th and 13th streets, especially from Pine in the south to Walnut in the north, but spills out to the surrounding areas. Most straight-owned Gayborhood businesses, are friendly to queer and straight alike regardless of orientation.The Philadelphia City Hall is unofficially the center of Center City at Broad and Market Street. The building is topped by a 36 feet, 4 inches, bronze statue of William Penn. Under a gentleman's agreement, City Hall (http://phila.gov/) remained the tallest building in the city until 1987.
Chinatown
extends from approximately 8th Street to 11th Street east-west, and Vine Street to Market Street north-south. Despite the name, Philadelphia's Chinatown (http://phillychinatown.com) has a variety of Asian ethnicities and has recently become one of the most popular neighborhoods for young people. The streets of are dominated by homes, restaurants, and boutique stores. Chinatown's symbol is its "Friendship Arch", an ornate paifang in the heart of the neighborhood. Though it is commonly found in many North American Chinatowns, the Arch Street incarnation is more elaborately rendered than most.