From Boston to New York to California, Chinatown bus lines battle stereotypes and create a lifeline between Chinese-American communities
Saturday, 5:27 p.m.
North Quincy T Stop, Boston, MA
“Hello? I’m calling from Coach Run Bus, I just want to make sure you come to take the bus, or no? We are located in the parking lot near the McDonald’s entrance. You have three minutes.”
The bus attendant, a woman in her mid-20s, does a head count, clicking her ballpoint pen intermittently. The driver returns from his cigarette break. He clips in his seatbelt, closes the door, and the engine purrs to life.
The bus lurches from the parking lot, out onto the I-95 highway for the 215-mile journey ahead.
It was along this route, between Boston and New York City, that curbside intercity bus travel was born two decades ago. Now a multi-million-dollar industry transporting tens of millions across the United States every year, the first service took New York Chinese garment workers to visit their children attending colleges in Boston. Nicknamed “Chinatown buses” due to their popular pick-up locations in Chinese communities, these bus lines pick up at hundreds of stops on the East and West Coast, sustaining family ties, transporting workers to jobs, and connecting individuals with services in urban centers.
From the center of Manhattan to truck stops in the Deep South and diners in the southwest desert, Chinese communities in America are linked by veins of gasoline and steel.
Saturday, 9:45 p.m.
Manhattan Chinatown, NYC
Half-hour before our scheduled arrival, we are crossing the bridge into Manhattan, approaching New York’s glittering skyline. The bus drops off on the bustling corner of Canal Street and Chrystie Street, the epicenter of Manhattan Chinatown. This is the Fertile Crescent of long-distance buses; in this one-mile stretch, there are at least seven bus companies that whisk passengers across the country every half-hour.
The scenes are similar: A white coach pulls up at a storefront, which doubles as a ticket office and waiting room. Passengers throw their luggage unassisted into a compartment on the side of the bus and are waved onboard.
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Chinatown Express is a story from our issue, “The Noughty Nineties.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine.
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