As Manhattan's pulsing heartbeat of neon Americana, Times Square is as alluring as it is off-putting. And yet for all its overcrowded, camera-flashing sins, it has something to offer that many first-timers might otherwise miss - the opportunity to ride a train that takes you around the world and back, all for the price of a US$7 one-day pass.
The 7 Train services a busy route, carrying New Yorkers from Queens to Manhattan on a 13km track borne aloft on a giant steel cradle. The elevated rail takes passengers above the rooftops on a seemingly straight line and it is held up by a structure similar to the one in Brooklyn made famous by the frenzied car chase in the movie The French Connection.
The route is one of the city's principal arteries, running from Times Square and taking in Bryant Park and 42nd Street in Manhattan before emerging in Brooklyn and following Roosevelt Avenue all the way to Flushing. On the way, you see how Queens - not usually the most fashionable tourist destination - has a strong claim on being the most ethnically layered county in the world. Imagine the diversity found in Chungking Mansions spread along a train route and you're on the right track.
Starting at the Queens end of the line, in Flushing's Chinatown, you travel through the Mexican and Indian neighbourhoods of Jackson Heights. The train, once known popularly as the Orient Express and now the International Express, then hits Woodside, home to a huge Irish community and full of rowdy, good-natured pubs - and Guinness as good as you will find this side of Dublin.
The railway is the thread that binds this disparate string of communities. Before 1898, Queens existed as a collection of villages; construction began in 1915 on a service to link them and in 1999, the 7 Train line was designated one of 16 trails that 'symbolise America's legacy for the millennium'. If that brings to mind images of paddle boats and quaint strolls through sun-dappled fields, forget it; the line gives a gritty, no-frills glimpse of the diversity that makes New York tick.
China - Flushing style
Scoot past Shea Stadium - home of the New York Mets - and the United States Tennis Association's National Tennis Centre - home of the US Open - and start at the end of the line. By the time you arrive in Times Square, you'll have forgotten where you are and where you came from. Here, people spit on the streets and it smells like Shenzhen. Flushing is New York's other Chinatown, making the Manhattan version look like Disneyland. In the build up to the handover in 1997, anxious Hong Kong businessmen poured money into Manhattan and Flushing, resulting in the Hong Kong-style food halls that dominate Flushing's neighbourhoods. Start the day on the right note with inexpensive dim sum or alternative Chinese breakfast dishes at Jia Xiang Lo, a block away from Main Street station. Street vendors sell big helpings of lo mein and fried noodles for US$1 a pop, while malls such as Hong Kong Supermarket (37-11 Main Street) have everything you might miss from home. And should you be really pining for Hong Kong, NY Tong Ren Tang (40-34 Main Street) sells a wide range of traditional Chinese remedies.