Name: New York City - December 2012 (Full Video)
Uploaded: 2013-11-04T00:03:54.000Z
Duration: 33 min 27 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Yep, New York. We have. Our hotel the Best Western Plus President on the right, which

Adverbs of degree

we found using the Hotel Tonight app. Very helpful. We got a great deal, around a hundred

bucks, just a block away from Times Square. We park right across the street for around

As soon as we get settled we get out and walk towards Times Square. Let get the touristy

Yep, this is New York. No other place comes close.

Walking down Broadway we get a glimpse of the Empire State building dressed in its Christmas

colors. The line to go up is hours long so we keep on walking this time towards 5th Avenue.

This is the famous New York Public Library.

We turn right on 42nd towards Grand Central Terminal.

The Chrysler Building and the Met Life, formerly Pan Am, and the Get a Life in certain video

We are back, I don't remember why, I think we had to pass by the hotel to pick up something.

We walk towards the Rockefeller Center on 6th Avenue, among the crowds of people.

Passing by Radio City Music Hall, the famous art deco style theater. This year the Rockettes

We try to get e glimpse at the Rockefeller Center Skating rink but the crowds are just

too large. Let's get into the glass elevator, maybe we are luckier, and we are.

We decide to go to the Top of the Rock observation deck, since we couldn't go up to Empire State

Building. Some say this view is actually better because from here you can actually see the

Empire State. The elevator has a glass ceiling in which they project footage by NBC though

The view towards Central Park is breathtaking, but it is even better looking towards the

south. The Chrysler, the Met Life, the Empire State with the new World Trade Center under

construction in the distance behind it. Times Square to the right.

In this room called the Breezeway, supposedly the lights of a certain color follow you around,

I don't know, let's get out of here before I go nuts. This is strange.

Back at the ground level the crowds are still enjoying the magic of Christmas.

We were all the way upthere. This very photogenic and iconic steam you've

been seeing coming from under the streets is actually a byproduct of the city's heating

system, which uses steam, naturally. And this statue of the Greek Titan Atlas dates

back to 1937. As the action starts to die down and the temperature

drops below freezing we return to the hotel, only to spy on our unsuspecting neighbors.

They are having some kind of get-together. After a while they go to sleep too, and so

In the morning we take the subway to downtown. It is our intention to visit the September

11 Memorial. The memorial is right next to the new construction

site and they have a TSA style security checkpoint, with x-rays, body scanners, magnetometers,

the works, and of course we couldn't photograph. I don't want to get started with my opinions

about this security theater. Let's just say I think they are overdoing a little bit. One

thing is common sense safety, but this is borderline paranoia. Anyways, on a more serious

note, the somber memorial honors the victims of the September 11 attacks, each fountain

built at the exact spot where the twin towers were located.

This tree in the middle was recovered from the rubble and it was replanted here as a

symbol of hope and rebirth. Time to get back to our hotel as check out

time is upon us. We have lunch at this excellent Vietnamese

restaurant right next to the hotel called Saigon 48, and off we go.

We are going to do something very few tourists do in New York. We are going to drive around

the city. We drive east on 48th street and then turn

left onto 6th Avenue, surrounded by a sea of taxicabs. We once again arrive by the corner

of the Radio City Music Hall. We continue speeding north towards Central

Park. We turn left onto West 59th Street, Central Park South towards the Columbus Circle.

The tall towers at the end are the Time Warner center. They are home, of course, to Time

Warner Incorporated; as well as the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, CNN Studios, a shopping mall

and a theater. At the Columbus Circle we turn right onto Central Park West, and the Upper

West Side. On the corner of 64th street we see the Harperly Hall, formerly Madonna's

home. She sold it in early 2013 for almost $20 million. By 65th street we encounter the

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, and continue going north, cruising along the lavish condos

of the rich and famous. The prominent tower a couple of blocks away to the left is the

San Remo, home to Demi Moore, Steve Martin and many other celebrities. Even the late

Steve Jobs used to own an apartment there, although he never lived in it and eventually

sold it to Bono. This building to our left is the Dakota, where John Lennon used to live

The New York Historical Society, The American Museum of Natural History. And this massive

building in front of us is the Beresford, home to Diana Ross and Jerry Seinfeld. I don't

know about you but I've seen enough celebrities for one day. Suffice to say that in order

to live in any of these buildings to the left you need to have some serious dough, seriously.

And as central park ends at Frederick Douglass Circle, so does the luxury, and it's time

for me to fill up. I mistakenly pulled up to the full service pump, we don't have those

where I live, it was a costly mistake. We continue onto Harlem, a major African-American

residential, cultural and business center. During the 1920's and 30's there was a great

artistic movement in theater, literature, and music called the Harlem Renaissance, and

ever since it has been up and down with periods of crime and great violence, and calmer periods

like the present. It is still mostly a poor neighborhood, with all the problems that come

with that. Contrary to popular believe, this was not the birthplace of the Harlem Shake.

As we turn right onto 135th avenue, we are going into the Spanish Harlem.

Sometimes it is cool just to stop and see the people crossing the street, the cars going

by, a train far away in the distance, a slice of life in the city, a slice, if you will,

of the neighborhood. We go back, back south on 5th avenue, and continue zigzagging. East

on 124th Street, south on Park Avenue, which in this area goes right next to the railroad

The red brick low income buildings, and yet another slice of the neighborhood, through

its people crossing the street. We have turned off the GPS so we even take a wrong turn here.

Sometimes though, it is good to get lost. I mean, we obviously seen the map, and know

the basic layout of the city, but it is good to explore its nooks and crannies sometimes.

South we go on 2nd Avenue, approaching the Upper West Side, one of the most affluent

neighborhoods. We observe the contrasts of the big city; from one of its poorest neighborhoods

into its most exclusive one, it is merely a couple of blocks. Look at this nice high

South we go on Lexington Avenue, and turn right onto 81st street, but oops, it is blocked

so we must maneuver backwards. Not the safest thing.

We turn right again two blocks down, on 79th. We drive west crossing famous Madison Avenue.

We reach Central Park. Here's another slice of the city life... a little different, wouldn't

you say? We turn left on 5th Avenue, going south, one of the most famous avenues in the

city. Fifth Avenue divides Manhattan into east and west. It has been called the most

expensive street in the world. Just as we start approaching the south end of Central

Park and the shopping section of this avenue a light snow starts to fall, as predicted