10 Urban Hikes For Exploring LA

There is simply too much to see, do, and eat in Chinatown. You can jump into the boisterous joy at the Central Plaza, stop by the city’s best dim sum shops, or visit the Chinese American Museum for traditional Chinese art. To get to know Chinatown beyond a first name basis, participate in the monthly guided tour to learn the history of the alleys and visit herbal shops and antique stores. Strolling inside the Taoist Thien Hau Temple, you will find
peace of mind among the solemn stone beams and under the carved wooden roof. Finish your trip at the LA State Historic Park inside Chinatown, where you can picnic near a pond while getting an amazing view of Downtown buildings.

For those Eames fans out there, it’s about time you visit the Eames House in Pacific Palisades. Designed by the celebrity designer couple Charles and Ray Eames, the house is one in a series of houses that incorporate beautiful and pragmatic modern designs to solve day-to-day problems of a hypothetical post-war couple. The house, which was constructed in two days, has got the whole package—an iconic, pop exterior with colored grids, posh designer furniture, a mission to enhance life in the modern era, and an endorsement from Ice Cube. In his two-minute guide to LA, Ice Cube praised the 1949-style house for its ‘1949 style.’ An extra bonus is the close-by Santa Monica Pier, another signature LA destination.

Venice Canals are the Star Trek Transporter that brings you from the hipster Venice Beach to a serene little town somewhere in Europe. They are for sure one of the most aesthetic places in LA for an outdoors walk. The canals have graciously lodged bridges over emerald waters, with European-style houses lining the waterways. As natural as they look, the canals are entirely man-made and are designed by conservationist Abbot Kinney, as a part of his ‘Venice of America’ project. Although the project failed and several canals were filled to build roads, the city polished up the attraction in 1992. Now the district is prettier than ever, and it will be the perfect backdrop of a memorable afternoon.

If you are delighted, inspired or humored to see majestic art made from the cheapest scraps, Watts Towers is not a place to be missed. The 17 connected steel structures, the highest of which shoots 99 feet into the sky, emerged from the hand of one single man, Italian immigrant Sabato (‘Simon’) Rodia. The sculpture, constructed in 33 years, is wrapped in thin loops, and would have seemed industrial and intimidating but for the whims of its creator. Rodia studded it with mosaic pieces of ceramics, glasses and tiles found in the neighborhood, making the sculpture in tune with its original name, Nuestro Pueblo (‘our town’). Walking from one loopy structure to another, you will get a glimpse of the craziest genius that Los Angeles inspires. A random fact: the neighborhood of Watts has the highest percentage of single-parent families in the city.