Plaza Santos Degollado

What it is. A small square on Avenida Independencia, a few steps from the Alameda Central and Eje Central, and the place where Mexico City's Chinese quarter converges. It was formerly the Plazuela de Tarasquillo; today it reads as a symbol of the friendship between two countries, with the ornamental gateway to the Barrio Chino as its set piece —worth stopping to look at the detail on the arch itself.

What is around it. Calle Dolores, the single street that makes up the Barrio Chino, runs off it: a short row of Chinese restaurants and shops, busiest at lunchtime and spectacular at Chinese New Year, when the whole block fills with lion dances and firecrackers. It is small —do not expect a Chinatown on the scale of San Francisco's— but it is one of the oldest Chinese communities in Latin America.

Practical notes. Open square, free, crossable at any hour, though this is a busy part of the Centro and best visited by day. The Alameda Central and the Palacio de Bellas Artes are both two minutes away; metro Bellas Artes and Juárez are the nearest stations.