Usera: Madrid's Chinatown and the river's south edge
The food streets and tea houses of Madrid's Chinatown, then a valley park down to the river. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Calle de Dolores Barranco and the food streets
Start where Usera turns Chinese: shopfronts in two scripts, supermarkets stacked with imports, restaurants serving the food the rest of Madrid has only recently discovered. This is the densest *barrio chino* in Spain. Walk slowly and read the windows — the hand-lettered menus tell you who's cooking for the neighbourhood, not for tourists.

2. The bakeries and tea houses
Among the grocers are the pastry counters — egg tarts, steamed buns, soft milk breads — and a handful of tea houses doing the proper thing with loose leaf and small cups. Buy a bun for the walk; sit with a tea if you've time. The specific shops shift, so follow the queue of locals rather than a name.

3. Mercado de Usera
The neighbourhood's covered market, where the old Spanish stalls — fish, ham, fruit — now share the hall with Chinese greengrocers and noodle counters. It's the clearest picture of how the *barrio* has changed: two food cultures under one municipal roof. Go in to look even if you don't buy.

4. Parque de Pradolongo
Usera's big green lung, a long valley park with a boating lake, sports courts and slopes of pine. On weekends whole families picnic here and the languages multiply. Walk down through it toward the river edge — the park is the seam between the dense streets and the city's southern rim.

5. The lake and the slopes
The artificial lake at the park's heart, ringed by a path that's all joggers in the morning and families by afternoon. Climb the western slope for a view back over the rooftops of Usera toward central Madrid. The quiet here is a deliberate counterweight to the crowded streets above.

6. The Manzanares south edge
The park runs out near the river's southern reach, where Madrid frays into ring roads and allotments. It's not pretty in the postcard sense — it's the real edge of the city, where Usera meets the water. A fitting close, then the metro home from San Fermín-Orcasur a short walk east.

Usera: Madrid's Chinatown and the river's south edge