In New York City, China is far yet near

I moved from Shanghai to New York a week ago.

It did feel like being in the Big Apple with our office on the 43rd Street near Fifth Avenue surrounded by the New York Public Library, the Bank of America Tower and Bryant Park.

But just a 30-minute ride home on Subway 7, Flushing in Queens takes me back to China again. Here, everyone appears to be talking either in Putonghua or Cantonese. And no one seems to be speaking English. Chinese signs outnumber those in English. Youtiao, which was hard to find in my Shanghai neighborhood, is readily available here; so too are other Chinese snacks, from Taiwanese to Northwestern Chinese.