Flushing Chinatown, or Mandarin Town, is the largest Chinatown in the world and one of the fastest-growing, known as Times Square Chinese or Chinese. The C J Food Market on Main Street is close to the Long Island train station. Downtown Flushing also has the last stop of No. 7 train.
This area is renowned for its Asian restaurants, bakeries and specialty stores and for its easy transportation to Manhattan. Dozens of bank branches operate on major avenues, and a new mall, the Shops at SkyView Center, is leased entirely to domestic retailers. The neighborhood has the feel of an Asian city. During the morning rush hour, street vendors sell newspapers in Chinese to travelers heading to No.
The colorful fruit and vegetable displays add character to the area. Flushing is truly a unique neighborhood and has a long history that goes back centuries, when the land was occupied by the Matinecock Indian tribe, a division of the Algonquian nation. In modern times, for the past 100 years, Flushing has been at the epicenter of a rich and dynamic culture that is unique to the tri-state area. Flushing was established on the eastern bank of Flushing Creek under the charters of the Dutch West India Company and was part of the colony of New Netherland.
The settlement is named after the city of Vlissingen, in the southwestern Netherlands, the company's main port. However, in 1657, residents named the place Vlishing. Finally, Flushing, the British name for Vlissingen, was used. Despite being a Dutch colony, many of the first inhabitants were British.
The original name is supposedly derived from the Dutch word fles, which means bottle. The Flushing protest was a 1657 petition addressed to the director general of New Holland, Peter Stuyvesant, in which about thirty residents of the small settlement of Flushing requested an exemption from their ban on Quaker worship. The document is considered a forerunner to the provision of the United States Constitution on freedom of religion contained in the Bill of Rights and is in the state archives in Albany. In the 1970s, following the 1976 fiscal crisis, more real estate was available.
The area was quickly colonized by Chinese and Koreans. In the late 2000s, Main Street was considered to be a very diverse community. The 13 Best Dim Sum Spots in Flushing, Queens The foothold of Korea's many commercial establishments (supermarkets, cosmetics stores, restaurants, bakeries, etc.). Therefore, this area covers an expanding geographical area that dwarfs just one block from Korea Town on 32nd Street in Manhattan.
162nd Street, at the intersection of Northern Boulevard, is home to lively Korean nightlife. Flushing has several stations at the Port Washington branch of Long Island Rail Road, as well as the IRT Flushing line of the New York City subway (7 and trains), which has its terminal on Main Street. This neighborhood tends to be visibly more diverse than downtown Flushing because of the more even distribution of ethnicities among East Flushing residents which translates into more ethnic businesses serving each community rather than predominance of Chinese and to a lesser extent Korean companies in downtown Flushing. In 1657 when Flushing was still a Dutch settlement Edward Hart city clerk created a document known as the Flushing Admonition, in which about thirty ordinary citizens protested against ban imposed by Peter Stuyvesant general director of New Amsterdam which prohibited giving refuge to Quakers.
Much of this area has been rezoned by New York City to preserve neighborhood's low-density residential quality. Downtown Flushing is just a short walk from the Queens Botanical Garden and a subway stop from Citi Field where the New York Mets play and U Stadium. During 19th century as New York City continued to grow in population and economic vitality so did Flushing. In 1898 although he opposed proposal the city of Flushing (along with two other cities and other land in Queens County) was consolidated into New York City to form the new borough of Queens.
Queens College founded in 1937 is a college of the City University of New York (CUNY) and is generally misunderstood to be within the boundaries of the Flushing neighborhood because its Flushing mailing address. Over the years, many new immigrants from different regions and provinces of China began arriving in New York City and settled in Flushing by word-of-mouth. Taiwanese immigrants were the first wave of Chinese-speaking immigrants who spoke Mandarin (Taiwanese is also spoken) instead Cantonese who arrived in New York City. The absenteeism rate for elementary school students in Flushing and Whitestone is lower than that of the rest of New York City.
The continued construction bridges over the Flushing River and the development other highways increased the volume vehicle traffic to Flushing. On December 27th 1657 ,the residentsof Flushing approved a protest known as The Flushing Remonstrance. Public parks and playgrounds in Flushing are overseen by the New York City Departmentof Parks and Recreation.
