M Map Peak-time queues at the door are a clue that this long-standing noodle joint on the 'street of happiness' has a loyal following.

One of Sūzhōu's most popular noodle joints, this canteen-style place was founded in 1934 and moved here in 2000.

The strip has storefronts with Korean chiropractors next to Chinese herbalists and Vietnamese noodle joints with big-screen TV's showing Vietnamese music videos next to Mexican restaurants with big-screen TV's showing Mexican game shows.

I still have enough ancestral New York in me that the notion of New York as Charlotte, N.C., with more cabs, bigger billboards and better noodle joints strikes me as pretty dispiriting, like the faux Times Square diner in Times Square.

I walked into a cheap noodle joint in Soho last month and decided I wanted tofu with vegetables.

The Chinese noodle joint, thick with incense and covered with the grit of decades, was still there, as was the paper factory and the little alley that sheltered a couple of grilled-chicken hawkers.

Among its many museums and cultural offerings, it has the only royal palace in the USA, and has become a foodie heaven of cheap noodle joints and fancy Pacific Rim cuisine.