In 1971, a group of young overseas Chinese men and women decided China had much to offer America and worked together to open a small “friendship” store in New York City's Chinatown. This was a radical idea at the time, as diplomatic relations between China and the United States were frozen and direct trade was strictly forbidden. Somehow, they found a way. Mere months after the store’s opening, President Nixon and Chairman Mao shook hands in Beijing, and Pearl River’s storied place in history as the world’s first Chinese American department store began. Over the next five decades, we cultivated a reputation in NYC for being the place where you can find just about anything: from Buddha statuettes to rice snacks to chopsticks, along with countless things you can’t even name. Many of our customers walk through the doors not knowing what they want, only to walk out hours later with exactly what they were looking for. Over 50 years later, Pearl River is a beloved New York institution and a symbol for the creativity and ingenuity of Asian Americans in this country.