If you’ve traveled the East Coast on a budget you may have experienced the magic of the “Chinatown Bus.” For those of you who aren’t familiar, the colloquial term “Chinatown Bus” refers to inexpensive intercity bus lines that run between major cities on the East Coast in the US, usually based in NYC’s Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan.
If you’ve never experienced the wonder of riding a Chinatown Bus, here’s a good account of what a trip is like, by writer Alex Lockie who rode 18 hours from New York City to Atlanta. In 18 hours you can watch this video 540 times!
The travel and boarding processes are really informal, and the companies don’t seem to have much in the way of advertising beyond the awnings of Chinatown storefronts, and yet somehow most New Yorkers know about them.
Now, hopefully the wonders of the Chinatown Bus will be spread far and wide with this week’s 52 Sellout, a 2-minute commercial, jingle, music video, that extolls the virtues of this unique travel option.