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One of the largest building projects in New York’s history is transforming this neglected urban plaza into an important public site. The redevelopment has attracted national and international businesses, such as giant media company Time Warner, which now has its headquarters in an 80-storey skyscraper. The new building contains shops, entertainment, restaurants, and the Mandarin Oriental hotel. It is also the new home of Jazz at the Lincoln Center, the world’s first performing arts facility dedicated to jazz. Other buildings in Columbus Circle include Hearst House, Trump International Hotel, and the Maine Monument.

Chinatown’s only park was created in the late 1890s as a result of the campaigning of newspaper reporter Jacob Riis and other social reformers. It filled a stretch of the city that at the time was New York’s worst slum, where Riis reported a stabbing or shooting at least once a week. Though it features more concrete than greenery, the park is popular today, filled with Chinese kids at play, mah jong players, and people practicing tai chi and martial arts. On the weekends, Chinese fortune-tellers sometimes set up shop in the park.

Brass doors and wrought iron gates lead into a U.S. Post Office in one of New York’s grandest interiors; a Great Hall with murals, frescoes and an elaborate domed ceiling. It was once the ticket office for the Queen Mary and Cunard’s other great ocean liners.

Jewels glisten in every window of this block, the center of the city’s retail and wholesale trade. It handles 80 percent of the diamonds coming into the U.S. Developed largely by Orthodox Jews, the district grew in importance during the World War II when thousands fled the diamond centers of Antwerp and Amsterdam to settle in New York. Above the shops are offices and workshops where the stones are cut and set.

Step into the incense-scented interior, where offerings of fresh fruit are piled high, and more than 100 gold Buddhas gleam in the candlelight. The temple takes advantage of Chinatown’s tourist traffic by offering $1 fortunes for sale near the front.

A National Historic Landmark. This 1887 Moorish-style synagogue was the first house of worship built in the U.S. by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, from where 80 percent of American Jews come. As many as 1,000 people attended services here at the turn of the century. As congregants left the neighborhood, attendance waned, and the temple closed in the 1950s. Restoration is now underway and the synagogue has become a vibrant cultural center.

New York’s most famous, and tallest, skyscraper is an Art Deco classic. Since it was completed in 1931 more than 120 million visitors have looked down on the city from its observatories.

Expect to be awed by this ultimate toy store selling giant stuffed animals to the last word in action toys. This wonderland of fun was founded by German immigrant Frederick August Otto Schwarz in 1862 and is now the flagship store for over 40 U.S. locations. Kids love looking, but be prepared to be wheedled into a purchase.

Founded in 1944 and now a branch of the State University of New York, the Fashion Institute of Technology is a prestigious school teaching art, fashion design, and marketing, and boasts famous alumni, including Calvin Klein, Norma Kamali, and David Chu. Students have the benefit of internships with New York’s leading stores and designers. Of greatest interest to the public is the gallery, which has changing exhibits, often from their collection of clothing and textiles.