Only in Boston by Duncan J.D. Smith

107 Downtown & Chinatown–Leather District Mooncakes (Ruby Foo’s Den, Bos- ton’s first Chinese restaurant for non-Chinese customers, opened near here in 1929). Farther along at 60 is China King, renowned for its homemade Udon Chow Mein and Egg Foo Young, and at 48 is Wings Live Poultry selling chick- ens and ducks. Continue to Harrison Avenue, once lined with clothing factories and laundries (a mural inside the Boston Chinese Neighbourhood Center at 38 Ash Street depicts a female garment worker). On the right at 36 is the Eldo Cake House selling pork buns and crushed pineapple rolls. On the left at 75 is Nam Bac Hong Chinese Herbs, where traditional remedies are dispensed from old wooden draw- ers. During the summer people queue outside New Dongh Khanh at 81 for tapioca-infused bubble tea. Back on Beach Street, Van’s Fabrics at 14 is the last remnant of Chinatown’s garment trade. This walk finishes at the far end of Beach Street with the Empire Garden at 690 Washington Street. This traditional Dim Sum restaurant, which offers taro root dumplings from carts wheeled around the room, is housed inside the magnificent former Globe Theatre built in 1903. Chinatown is at its most lively during Chinese New Year (usually late January) and the August Moon Festival, when the streets are alive with parading dragons and firecrackers. A Dragon Boat Festival is staged each June on the Charles River. A modest wall plaque at the junction of Beach Street and Tyler Street marks where in 1761 eight-year old Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784) arrived on a slave ship. She was purchased by the Wheatley family and eventually became the first published African- American woman. Other locations nearby: 49, 50 Chinese chess is a popular pastime in Boston’s Chinatown