NEW YORK is electric from the neon billboards of Times Square to Manhattan's night-lit skyline to the rush of people cramming the streets, subways, office towers, theaters and restaurants. An international capital of finance, fashion, media and the arts, it's a place where worlds collide to create an utterly distinctive energy. Underneath the cosmopolitan sheen, however, New York remains a city of neighborhoods. From the Lower East Side to Spanish Harlem, from Bedford Stuyvesant to Chinatown, Old World customs still have their place.

Business Attire

Practices Dress for business in New York is both formal and fashionable. Meetings and working lunches tend to be efficient rather than leisurely (don't take it personally). Punctuality is expected, but New Yorkers will understand if, for instance, your subway was held up in Times Square because of a track fire in Brooklyn. (It happens.)

Restaurants

New York has many, many restaurants per square mile, representing every ethnicity on the globe (and a few unusual fusions Cuban-Chinese, for example), and many of them are outstanding. Though this city has more than its share of pricey restaurants, opportunities for good eating at reasonable prices are abundant. At hot spots, it's advisable to make dinner reservations one or two months in advance, particularly for weekend nights. 

Shopping

From elegant 5th Avenue department stores to small specialty shops, charming boutiques and bargain basements, New York is truly a shopper's heaven. The city offers whole districts of stores devoted to a particular specialty, such as antiques or jewelry; one section in Midtown sells only buttons and sewing notions, another in the Chelsea neighborhood concentrates on plants. Macy's incorporates everything: It's a New York landmark.

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