New York
New York City (officially the City of New York) is a city in the state of New York and is the most populous city in the United States of America. Its business, finance, trading, law, and media organizations are influential around the globe. The city is one of the world's most important cultural centers, with hundreds of world-class museums, galleries, and performance venues. Home of the United Nations, the city is also one of the world's major venues for international diplomacy.
The city is comprised of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. With over 8.1 million residents within an area of 322 square miles (830 km²), New York City has the highest population density of any major city in North America. The city's metropolitan area, with a population of 18.8 million, ranks among the largest urban areas in the world.
New York City has been a dominant global financial center since World War II. It is also the birthplace of many American cultural movements, including the Harlem Renaissance in literature and visual art, abstract expressionism in painting, and hip hop in music. The city's cultural vitality has been fueled by immigration since its founding by Dutch colonists in 1625. In 2005, nearly 170 languages were spoken in the city and 36 percent of its population was foreign born.
Tourist attractions
About 40 million foreign and American tourists visit New York City each year. Major destinations include the Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Broadway theatre productions, scores of museums such as the El Museo del Barrio, Washington Square Park, the Bronx Zoo and New York Botanical Garden, luxury shopping along Fifth and Madison Avenues, and events such as the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, the Tribeca Film Festival, and free performances in Central Park at Summerstage. Many of the city's ethnic enclaves, such as Jackson Heights, Flushing, and Brighton Beach are major shopping destinations for first and second generation Americans up and down the East Coast.
New York City has 28,000 acres (113 km²) of parkland and 14 miles (22 km) of public beaches. Manhattan's Central Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, is the most visited city park in the United States. Prospect Park in Brooklyn, also designed by Olmsted and Vaux, has a 90 acre (36 Hectare) meadow. Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, the city's third largest, was the setting for the 1939 World's Fair and 1964 World's Fair.
New York's food culture, influenced by the city's immigrants and large number of dining patrons, is diverse. Jewish and Italian immigrants made the city famous for bagels and New York style pizza. Some 4,000 mobile food vendors licensed by the city, many immigrant-owned, have made Middle Eastern foods such as falafels and kebabs standbys of contemporary New York street food. The city is also home to many of the finest haute cuisine restaurants in the United States.