I saw this video some time ago, and ever since then in the back of my mind I've wanted to do something similar. Well, I figured I'd put the plans into motion this winter break! So I've set a little goal for myself to visit as many free museums in LA as I can within the next two weeks. We'll see how much I accomplish heh. However, I didn't want to stick to only museums, but also check out cool places around them if there are any. All done using public transportation and good o' walking, of course.

This little trip took place on 12/19/2025, but I'm writing about it the day after because I was too tired when I came back lol.

// First Stop: Chinese American Museum

The Chinese American Museum is my favorite out of all the spots I visited today. It's the most fun I've had visiting a museum in a while :D I've been to my fair share of ethnic museums, but never one of my own culture until now. (At least, I think? My memory's not that good.) Seeing different yet familiar artifacts, being able to identify and actually understand the cultural oddities... mmm yes, there's something about it that I can't quite put into words. It's an interesting experience—and one I quite enjoyed at that—being able to point out certain objects and drawing a comparison to their modern counterparts, like how traditional chinese medicine shops still exist to this day and they still use the same wall of wooden cabinet setup, or porcelain bowls with patterns that clearly feels like they're from an older time, not reproduced on modern tableware.

Me and my mom had a difficult time understanding this testimony. It's interesting to me because if you can read English now, you can read an English writing from the 1700s no problem. However, this is not the case with written Chinese, as this document from what I think is the early 1900s is nearly indecipherable to a modern Standard Chinese speaker. Some characters are still identifiable, but many are different. The location of "唐山广东省新宁县永和村" was an enigma to us and we spent some time debating what 唐山 could be referring to, as the modern location of 唐山 is nowhere near 广东. Maybe the guy was just making stuff up lol.

This exhibition is a recreation of an actual store that was housed in the Garnier Building in the 1890's. The Sun Wing Wo store opened in 1891 and remained in this building until 1948. — CAM Website

How cool is that! A recreation of an actual store that was once in this very same building. No wonder it felt so authentic lol. I loved looking through all the little trinkets in the cabinets; they feel like things you would not be surprised to find stashed somewhere in your grandparents' house.

// Second Stop: LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes

When I go to a cultural museum that is of a culture I am not from, it is inevitable that I will be missing out on a lot things only someone actually from the culture or is intimately familiar with it would be able to easily identify. While I may try my best to appreciate and learn while I'm at the museum, I feel like there's only so much I could do as an outsider looking in. I think this is why when I went to the Cheech Museum, the tour really blew me away. Instead of looking at artifacts and going "cool" or "wow I didn't know that", it feels much more personal hearing the story/history from someone who grew up in the culture and is knowledgeable about the artifacts in exhibit. Anyway, all this is leading up to how I feel about the LA Plaza museum: while I enjoyed my time here and definitely learned a lot about the history and people of Los Angeles, there was this feeling of disconnect, which was especially prominent after my time at the Chinese American Museum. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation, I suppose.

// Walking to The Last Bookstore

Even though most of the walk from the museums to The Last BookStore isn't technically part of the Historic Core district, there were plenty of old and cool buildings to see!

// Third Stop: The Last Bookstore

The moment we got there and I saw a group of teenagers around the same age as me excitingly taking out their phones, I knew this was the right place. :P Having worked at a thrift store that sell second-hand books, second-hand bookstores sort of lost its novelty to me. They're still cool, of course, but the magic is gone LOL. You'd be surprised by the crazy (and by crazy I mean interesting) things people donate all the time.

This whole store feels like an art installation. Well maybe because it is. The atmosphere isn't my favorite though; it's a little too dark for my liking. In my mom's words, "it feels like you could fall asleep in here." I wonder if this sort of dim-lighting, cozy vibe is a common bookstore thing? There's a similar independent bookstore at my (second) hometown and they've got a similar vibe going on. I don't go into bookstores a lot if you can't tell lol. I haven't been an avid reader since middle school...

The store's visitors can be roughly divided into two categories: the regulars - people who are actually here to read books and spend more than an hour in here, and the tourists - people (like me) who are here to visit one of the must-visit places in DTLA. So, what's the verdict? Is it worth visiting? Yep! Lots of people, lots of things to look at. I'm sure you can spend all day in here if you wanna dig through all the books and cool spots.