I had just finished a year of traveling abroad in college and had flown back to meet my dad on his business trip in Philly. I hadn't been to the city despite passing through it on a road trip to New York when I was little, so the urban landscape was relatively unknown to me. Walking past the beautiful brick apartments and buzzing streets, Chinatown had been the first and last place I'd spent on my 48 hours in this city before returning home and the most memorable. University students on summer session, restaurants turning tables, tourists and locals alike coming here to start their Thursday night: a glimpse of routine, metropolitan America from this small pocket of town.