Chinatowns in the Americas

In general, there are three types of Chinatowns in North America:^{[citation needed]}

frontier and rural Chinatowns
urban Chinatowns
suburban Chinatowns

The first two types of Chinatowns were typically pioneered by early Chinese immigrants in the 19th to the mid-20th centuries. Suburban quasi-"Chinatowns" – altogether replacing the functions of their original counterparts – were developed due to the arrival of later waves of new ethnic Chinese immigrants as well as the in flow of investments, mostly during the 1970s and 1980s (these are not considered Chinatowns in the usual sense of the word).

Distinctive Chinese-style architecture characterizes the streets of San Francisco's historic Chinatown, one of the largest in the United States.

Chinatowns in Canada

Alberta

Edmonton

There are actually two Chinatowns in Edmonton: the newer Chinatown North (dominated by Hong Kong Chinese emigrants) and the older Chinatown South. Chinatown North stretches on 97 St from 107A Ave to 105 Ave and boasts mostly of shops, restaurants, and supermarkets. The Chinatown North has some strip malls including Lucky 97 Supermarket, Asia Square or Pacific Rim Mall. Chinatown South stretches on 102 Ave (Harbin Road) from 97 St to 95 St and south to Jasper Avenue, contains some restaurants, shops, residential buildings, and a multicultural centre. The older Chinatown south features a paifang from Edmonton's sister city, Harbin.

West Edmonton Mall has a themed street named Chinatown, with a lion's gate entrance, a koi pond, and a festive dragon. Asian-themed shops and services are available, anchored by a T & T Supermarket.

Calgary

The Chinatown in Calgary is the largest in Alberta. It spans 1 St E westward to 10 St W and from the Bow River southward to 4 Ave SW. This Chinatown consists of a large shopping centre called Dragon City Mall and a Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre located at 1 St SW. Nearly all of this is post-1930s, as Calgary's original Chinatown was little more than a handful of "Chinese and Western" restaurants in the same area, without the historic Chinese-ethnic residential-commercial quality of more historic Chinatowns like those in Vancouver.

British Columbia

Vancouver

Vancouver's Chinatown is the largest in Canada. Dating back to the late 19th century, the main centre of the older Chinatown is Pender and Main Streets in downtown Vancouver, which is also, along with Victoria's (Chinatown, Victoria), one of the oldest surviving Chinatowns in North America, and has been the setting for a variety of modern Chinese Canadian culture and literature and innumerable Hollywood movies.

Vancouver's Chinatown contains numerous galleries, shops, restaurants, and markets, in addition to the Chinese Cultural Centre and the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden and park; the garden is the first and one of the largest Ming era-style Chinese gardens outside China.

During the early 1990s, the cultural centre and destination point for Chinese Canadians had begun to shift away from the old Chinatown in downtown Vancouver, moving southward into the suburbs of the Lower Mainland, particularly around 41st Avenue and Victoria Drive in the Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhood in Vancouver and the Golden Village area in Richmond. In addition to Richmond, there are other Chinese immigrant communities developing in Burnaby and Coquitlam. The malls of the Metrotown district of South Burnaby are heavily Asian-oriented, and comprise yet another suburban quasi-Chinatown, although less so than Golden Village.

International Village, which is an outgrowth of the Expo Lands development, is a newer apartment tower enclave next to Chinatown which includes an Asian mall and numerous upscale shoppes and restaurant developments that are intended to rejuvenate Chinatown.

Richmond

The Golden Village neighbourhood of Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, is the exception to North American Chinatown trends described above.^{[original research?]} Unlike the Mandarin-dominated or the pan-Chinese new "Chinatowns" in the U.S., the shops and services in Richmond are mostly Hong Kong-centric. In local usage, Chinatown refers exclusively to downtown Vancouver's historic Chinatown district.^{[citation needed]}

The Richmond area is 10 km south of Chinatown in downtown Vancouver near Highway 99 and Westminster Highway; the main corridor of the Chinese retailers is No. 3 Road. The Aberdeen Centre and Yaohan Centre are prominent malls for Chinese retailing.

Burnaby

Increasing Chinese and Taiwanese migration to Burnaby (among other suburbs in the Metropolitan Vancouver Lower Mainland) has led to the development of the Crystal Mall, a major pan-Asian mall in the Metrotown area of Kingsway, although the other malls and plazas in the area also have a marked Taiwanese clientele.

Victoria

A very small Chinatown can be found in the provincial capital of Victoria, and as with most North American Chinatowns it is mostly touted as a tourist attraction. Chinatown is located within minutes walking distance of other Downtown Victoria shopping, entertainment, and cultural venues such as: Save On Foods Memorial Centre Arena, Bay Centre Mall, Market Square, Victoria, Centennial Square, Bastion Square. It is centred on Fisgard Street and is, along with the much larger one in downtown Vancouver, one of the oldest surviving historic Chinatowns in North America. There are about two dozen Chinese-oriented businesses in this area.

Despite its small size, it was once the largest and oldest Canadian Chinatown on the West Coast of North America. It is the second oldest Chinatown after San Francisco's and it played an important part in local history, including the British Columbia Gold Rushes. Companies based here were the contractors for railway labour on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and Canadian National Railway (CNR). During the 20th Century, the second floor of the building on the southwest corner of Government and Fisgard Streets was the International Headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party. Records of Victoria's Chinese Benevolent Association,^[1] the oldest Chinese-Canadian organization, display a wide range of pursuits including advocacy for full political equality as well as self-help and mutual aid activities.

The Victoria, BC Chinatown was made up of several streets (about 6 square city blocks, Chinatown, Victoria) at its highest population in around 1910–1911.

Other Chinatowns in British Columbia

New Westminster's Chinatown
New Westminster Museum and Archives Chinatown Project
Lillooet's Chinatown – the BC Interior's first Chinatown
Barkerville's Chinatown – although ostensibly about Barkerville per se, content here is all Chinese-related.
Map of Barkerville, explaining location and circumstances of Chinatown
Yale's Chinatown – the first Chinatown on the BC Mainland
Yale's On Lee House – a surviving structure of Yale's Chinatown
Cumberland's Chinatown – once the second-largest on the West Coast of North America (c.1910)
Cumberland's Chinese Strikebreakers, from Digital Collections "King Coal" series
Picture of Cumberland's Chinatown, 1910
Stanley, British Columbia – a gold-mining community near Barkerville which became the largest town in the Cariboo goldfields after Barkerville's decline. In 1900 well over half its population was Chinese. Other towns in the Cariboo goldfields were also noticeably Chinese in composition – Richfield, Antler and others. Settlements in other areas which had Chinatowns, or which became predominantly Chinese for some of their lifespan, were Hazelton, Boston Bar, Rock Creek, Granite Creek and Fisherville (Wild Horse Creek). Cities which had now-vanished Chinatowns included Nanaimo and Penticton.

Manitoba

The Chinatown in Winnipeg was formed in 1909. It is on King Street between James and Higgins Avenues, and was officially designated in 1968. Some 20,000 Chinese live in the Winnipeg area.

Ontario

Ottawa

Ottawa's Chinatown area is in the Centretown West neighbourhood. It is centered on Booth Street and Somerset Street.^{[citation needed]}

Toronto

Toronto's historic Chinatown is centered on Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street. More recently the enclave has come to reflect a more diverse set of East Asian cultures, including Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai. A smaller enclave known as East Chinatown is located in the Riverdale neighbourhood, centered at the corner of Broadview Avenue and Gerrard Street. Chinese-Vietnamese and mainland Chinese immigrants dominate that district.

Markham

Markham is typical suburban Chinatown, lying north of Toronto. Markham has some large Chinese shopping malls on Kennedy Road and Steeles Avenue East. The most famous strip malls are Pacific Mall, Market Village Mall and Splendid China Tower. Chinese are the largest minority in Markham with almost 64'000 people, about 25% of the population.

Richmond Hill

Another suburban "Chinatown" of Toronto. About 21% of the population is of Chinese origin. There are some large Chinese strip malls along Highway 7: Golden Plaza and Times Square Mall.

Quebec

Montreal

Montreal's small, but well-frequented Chinatown is on rue De La Gauchetière and around rue Saint-Urbain and boulevard Saint-Laurent, between boulevard René-Lévesque and rue Viger (Place-d'Armes metro station), just a stone's throw away from the touristy Old Montreal (Vieux-Montreal). It was originally formed in the 1890s and has been the centrepiece for Chinese residing in the Montreal area.

The Chinatown is known as Quartier chinois in French.

Chinese businesses in Quebec enjoy a rare exception to that province's notorious language laws. When l'office de la langue française ordered restaurants and other businesses to replace their Chinese signs with signs where the French text is at least twice as large as Chinese, and without any English, Chinese businessmen protested that this was unlucky and bad for business. They were granted exemption from the province's strict sign laws on cultural grounds (which is not allowed other ethnic and cultural groups).

Quebec City

There was once a Chinatown on Côte d'Abraham in Quebec City, but Autoroute Dufferin-Montmorency cuts through what was once its location. Historically, it paled in size in contrast to its somewhat larger counterpart in Montreal. The first Chinese residents arrived in the late 19th Century. Most Chinese in the area operated business catering to their own: opium dens, mah-jongg, and Chinese laundries. The area peaked in the 1940s and 1950s. The separatist movement caused many to leave in the 1980s and 1990s. Some restaurants and a few Chinese residents remain. Most have moved to Montreal or Toronto.

The city has made attempts to re-establish a link to the past:

a street was renamed Rue de Xi’an in 2006
archway and park to be added shortly to commemorate the Chinese community of the past

Saskatchewan

Regina

Regina's Chinatown is found on 11th Avenue between Broad Street and Winnipeg Street. It features red bilingual street signs (in contrast to the standard English-only blue signs) and a few Asian groceries.

Saskatoon

In Saskatoon, the Chinatown can be found in the Riversdale district of that city.^{[citation needed]}

Chinatowns in the United States

Arizona

Phoenix

Phoenix once had a Chinatown around what is now US Airways Center. It was defunct long before US Airways Center was built. Some artifacts from the Chinatown were uncovered in an archaeological dig on the site, and are exhibited at the Center.

A Chinatown-themed shopping center built to traditional Chinese architecture was opened in 1997 near the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. It is called the Chinese Cultural Center and the offices are located at 668 N. 44st, a bit north of Van Buren St.

California

Given its relative proximity to East Asia and Southeast Asia, California has the largest number of historic in North America, including the well-known Chinatown in San Francisco, the first all-Chinese rural town of Locke to be built by Chinese immigrants, and Chinatowns in various cities throughout the state.

Northern California

San Francisco

The first, and one of the largest, most prominent and highly visited Chinatowns in North America is San Francisco's Chinatown, which is predominantly Cantonese-speaking, though many immigrants from Mainland China (mostly hailing from Guangdong province) are also fluent in Mandarin. Its main entrance is at Grant Avenue at Bush Street, but the center of Chinese commercial activities is on Stockton Avenue, whereas the section mostly oriented towards tourists is on Grant Avenue.

Founded around 1850, Chinatown was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and was later rebuilt and re-realized, using a Chinese-style architecture that has been criticized as garish and touristy. According to Sunset Magazine, Chinatown receives millions of tourists annually, making the community, along with Alcatraz and Golden Gate Bridge, one of the prime attractions and highlights of the city of San Francisco, as well as the centerpiece of Chinese-American history. With its Chinatown as the landmark, the city of San Francisco itself has one of the largest and predominant concentrations of Chinese-American population centers, representing 20% of total population as of the 2000 Census, even more than New York City in terms of proportional numbers according to anthropologist Bernard Wong. While many ethnic Chinese do not reside in Chinatown today, but instead throughout the city of San Francisco as well as the surrounding Oakland and San Jose areas, Chinatown remains the historical anchor. It has also remained the symbolic center as city politicians and candidates have made it a de rigueur stop during election campaigns. Historically and today, Chinese in America refer to San Francisco in Cantonese as Die Foul (大埠, which can be translated as 大城, da cheng in Mandarin Chinese or the Big City in English.)

Besides the main thoroughfare of Grant Avenue and various side streets, Chinatown has several side alleys, including Ross Alley. Contained within this alley is a mix of touristy stores, tiny barber shop (once patronized by famous singer Frank Sinatra) as well as a fortune cookie factory. Ross Alley used to have brothels, but they no longer exist.

Also within the confines of Chinatown is the Woh Hei Yuen Recreation Center and Park on Powell Street. Many Chinese-speaking old-timers are frequent patrons this park because their lodgings – generally intended for low-income persons – tend to be tiny and cramped. Many elderly people gather to play mahjong, Chinese poker, perform tai chi exercises in the morning, read a Chinese newspaper, or simply to lounge around.

The San Francisco Chinatown hosts the largest Chinese New Year parade in North America, with corporate sponsors such as the Bank of America and the award-winning and widely praised dragon dance team from the San Francisco Police Department, composed solely of Chinese-American SFPD officers (the only such team in existence in the United States). In its founding, it received the grant from the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, otherwise known as the Chinese Six Companies. As Chinatown and many Chinese-Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area have historical or current roots in province of Guangdong, China (particularly Taishan County) and in Hong Kong, these dances mostly are performed in the southern Chinese style.

The first Chinese-American police chief in the United States, Fred Lau, of the SFPD, grew up in San Francisco Chinatown. The current SFPD Chief of Police, Heather Fong, was also born and raised in Chinatown. At the start of her police career, Fong was a key investigator of the notorious 1977 Golden Dragon massacre in Chinatown.

San Francisco Chinatown has been shown in numerous movies and television shows, and boasts a number of firsts, including the invention of chop suey, being the site of printing currency for the then-newly emerged Republic of China, and the first Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, San Francisco's Chinatown was also at the center for Chinese-American activism and radical politics, some of which was militant, as well as major gang activity with the emergence of the notorious Wah Ching in North America. Currently, the historic Chinatown shows some signs of decline.

After President Richard M. Nixon's historic 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China, the arrival of new Chinese immigrants to the San Francisco area helped diversify and introduce new Chinese cuisine from many regions throughout mainland China in its Chinatown — the restaurants previously served mainly Cantonese and unauthentic Chinese-American fare.

Today, as with most Chinatowns in or near congested urban centers, parking problems still continue to plague the area, which has implications on the economy of the enclave. Due to the aging infrastructure which pre-dated the advent of the motor vehicle, it has been said nothing could be done by the municipal government of San Francisco to alleviate such problems. Many principal ethnic Chinese residents and frequenters of Chinatown are elderly and do not speak much English and in terms of transportation have very limited mobility and remain in Chinatown for shopping and social services through the local associations.

Oakland

Oakland's Chinatown is frequently referred to as "Oakland Chinatown" in order to distinguish it from nearby San Francisco's Chinatown. Originally formed in the 1860s, the Chinatown of Oakland – centering upon 8th Street and Webster Street – shares a long history as its counterpart in the city of San Francisco as Oakland's community remains one of the focal point of Chinese American heritage in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, the major difference with San Francisco's Chinatown is that Oakland's version is not as touristy as its local economy tends not to rely on tourism as much. But the local government of Oakland has since promoted it as such as it is considered one the top sources of sales tax revenue for the city. The Chinatown does not have an ornamental entrance arch (paifang) but the streets of the community are adorned with road signs in English with Chinese rendering.

Today, while it remains a Cantonese-speaking enclave "Chinatown" is not exclusively Chinese anymore, but a vibrant pan-Asian neighborhood which reflects Oakland's rich diversity of Asian community of Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Japanese, Cambodian, Laotian, Mien, Thai, and others. In a matter of 12 city blocks, one can expect to find in this Chinatown a collection of groceries, restaurants, stores (offering products such as ginseng and herbs, jewelry, and so on), clinics, the Oakland Asian Cultural Center (9th Street), and habitations for elderly immigrants, as well as a local branch of the Oakland Public Library filled with Asian materials and collections. In addition to the standard Chinese New Year festivities, the Oakland Chinatown Streetfest (as held by the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce) is also held yearly in August and it features Chinese lion dances, parades, music, cooking demonstrations and contests, a food festival, and various activities.

San Jose/Silicon Valley

While the city of San Jose proper did have several Chinatowns in the past, they are all extinct today.

Sacramento

Sacramento has a relatively small urban Chinatown, which dates back to the early days of the California Gold Rush. Mostly, it serves more a as museum than anything else.

Nowadays, the southern area of city consists mostly of Vietnamese businesses owned by Chinese from Vietnam. On Stockton Boulevard, there are Asian strip malls with Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants, and shopping at Pacific Rim Plaza and major Asian supermarkets.

In the past decade, Sacramento has seen a booming ethnic Vietnamese population with a large migration from other parts of California.

Stockton

In Stockton, California still exists a small Chinatown on Chung Wah Lane, East Market Street and East Washington Street. Although it is a very small area, there are some Chinese stores in it as well as restaurants such as On Lock Sam, the city's oldest restaurant, founded in 1898. The community was once quite large but, after development in the 1950s and 1960s and the construction of the Crosstown freeway, businesses moved, buildings were demolished, new buildings were built, and the community changed forever. There is still a Chinese New Year Parade merged with the Vietnamese New Year celebrations.

Locke

Just beyond the Sacramento and Stockton areas, the small town of Locke is an example of an early rural "Chinatown" completely built by Chinese immigrants in 1915. Consisting of only three streets in town (Main Street, River Road, and Key Street), it was a thriving community with various merchants and associations as its economy based mostly on the agriculture. Very few ethnic Chinese live there these days. The Dai Loy Museum – dai loy(大來) literally renders as "big come" in Cantonese – as well as one Chinese restaurant offering a mixture of traditional Cantonese and Americanized Chinese food are features in Locke. In the early 1980s, a 30-minute documentary from the University of California, Berkeley called American Chinatown, which documented the last surviving immigrant old-timers as well as battles with land developers and the touristification of the community.

Fresno and Central Valley

Work is underway to revitalize Fresno's once-moribund Chinatown, founded in 1885 at F Street in the San Joaquin Valley city. It is undergoing a massive beautification project. However, currently the area is not exclusively Chinese. One of the major problems is that there are fewer Chinese businesses there. But the area already holds an annual Chinese New Year celebration. The Chinatown Revitalization Inc has been making several efforts to support the Chinatown of Fresno.

The town of Hanford, about 30 miles distance from Fresno, features a ramshackle Chinatown from the 19th century era, mostly contained within a small street block known as China Alley. Many early immigrants arrived from the Sam Yup region (or Sanyi in modern pinyin) in the province of Guangdong, China. Many of its multigeneration American-born Chinese descendants of original settlers have since moved on. Chinatown had its early share of opium dens and brothels. In modern times, all that still stands of China Alley is a Taoist temple (a monument officially recognized by the National Register of Historic Places) and a special museum.

Southern California

Inland Empire

Several cities of the Inland Empire region once had standing Chinatowns, including the former farming communities of San Bernardino, Riverside, and Redlands.

San Bernardino's Chinatown, pioneered in the late 1870s, occupied Third Street between Arrowhead and Mountain View. During its peak in the 1890s, the community flourished with several Chinese habitations and community trades, such as shops. By the 1920s, Chinatown experienced decline and the last remnants of Chinatown fell into obscurity in 1959.

The Chinatown in Redlands was on what is now Oriental Avenue and Texas Street. It is no longer extant.

The Chinatown of Riverside was established in 1885. The remaining Chinese American survivor of Riverside's Chinatown died off in 1974. He attempted to preserve Chinatown, but his efforts were in vain because the last remnant of Riverside's Chinatown was razed in 1978. As with many early Chinatowns in the small and medium-sized towns of California, the once vibrant Chinese American history has faded into obscurity.

Los Angeles

In the city of Los Angeles proper, the old inner-city Chinatown was built during the late 1930s–the second Chinatown to be constructed in Los Angeles. Formerly a "Little Italy," it is presently located on Broadway Avenue and Spring Street near Dodger Stadium in downtown Los Angeles with still several restaurants, grocers, and tourist-oriented trinket shops. A statue honoring the Kuomintang founder Dr. Sun Yat-sen adorns the more touristy area in the northeast section. Chinatown is home to several family and regional associations and general service organizations for old-timer immigrants (called in Cantonese lo wah cue) as well as ones founded by and for the new immigrants from Southeast Asia. The enclave contains Buddhist temples, Chinese Christian church (with services conducted in Cantonese), and a temple devoted to the Chinese Goddess of the Sea.

San Diego

San Diego had a historic Chinatown founded in the 1870s, formerly around Market Street and Third Avenue, that has faded over time. In 1987, due to its historic and cultural value, the city council of San Diego sought to preserve the area and officially designated it the Asian Pacific Thematic Historic District, which overlaps the burgeoning and gentrified Gaslamp Quarter (the center of the San Diego's trendy nightlife scene). The annual San Diego Chinese New Year Food and Cultural Faire is presented in this particular district.

San Luis Obispo

There is a nearly forgotten "Chinatown" from the middle 1870s on Chorro Street and Palm Street in the Central Coast town of San Luis Obispo. An early Chinese store was owned by early Chinese immigrant pioneer and influential community leader Ah Louis. It is now considered a historic relic. Also, many Chinese artifacts of the community have since been discovered during excavations. Railroad Square features a statue that honors the Chinese immigrant laborers who worked on the railroads in the vicinity of San Luis Obispo.

Florida

Miami

Miami has a relatively new and informal Chinatown located at NE 167th Street and 163rd Street, between NE 6th Avenue and NE 19th Avenue in North Miami Beach. The location of the area right next to the sea on an inlet and in a central location in South Florida is said to be the reason for its emerging prominence in the Asian community. It is known as the business center of Miami–Dade's growing Indian American, Indo-Caribbean American and Chinese American communities. In recent years the whole Miami area has seen a huge increase in Chinese immigrants amongst other Asian communities and North Miami Beach has been the most affected by this. While called "Chinatown," the area is also the center of other Asian communities such as Indian, Korean, Filipino, Korean and Vietnamese.

Hawaii

Honolulu

The official and historic Chinatown of Honolulu, on North Hotel Street and Maunakea Street, contains traditional ethnic Chinese businesses. Unlike Chinatowns in the continental United States which were largely pioneered and dominated by Taishan immigrants, Honolulu's Chinatown was started by early settlers from Zhongshan, Guangdong province in the 1890s. They migrated to Hawaii for work in the island's cane sugar plantations as well as rice fields and then as they became successful eventually relocating to the city of Honolulu. As with other Chinatowns in the United States, it was noted for its unsanitary conditions. In the 1940s, it degenerated into a red-light district.

Today, it is also diverse with Pan-Asian and Pacific Islander businesses and the ethnic Chinese from Vietnam are largely demographically represented in Honolulu's Chinatown. Businesses include markets, bakeries, Chinese porcelain shop, and shops specializing with gingseng herbal remedies). In Chinatown, there are also bazaars and street peddlers in the Kekaulike Mall (located on Kekaulike Street) bringing it unique bustling ambiance to the community. The variety of restaurants serving Hong Kong-style dim sum and others in Vietnamese beef noodle soup are frequent in Chinatown. The history of Chinese revolutionary Dr. Sun Yat-sen – himself hailing from the Zhongshan region of Guangdong province of Mainland China – is tied to Hawaii, having receiving his Western education there. Chinatown, Honolulu was once served as the base of operations in a series of crusades against ruling Qing Dynasty in China that culminate in the Revolution of 1911. There is a monument in his honor in Honolulu's Chinatown. Recent development and planning has dramatically transformed the once decaying and unsafe Chinatown, Honolulu from its red-light past to an upscale Asian inspired arts district blended with the traditional Chinese bazaars and family owned stores.

Illinois

Chicago

The Chinatown in Chicago is a traditional urban Chinatown occupying the area along Wentworth Avenue at Cermak Road south of downtown. This area has historically been dominated by commerce, though in recent years, residential developments have greatly increased the number of people living in the area. With restaurants, markets, shops, associations, and community services, this original Chinatown particularly attracts Chinese emigres hailing from China. The annual Chinese New Year and Chinese Double Ten Day Parade are held in Chinatown.

Chicagoans also refer to a Southeast Asian community on Argyle Street in the north side as the "New Chinatown", or alternately, as "Little Chinatown". But at this point, this "new" chinatown still pales in size and scope to the more traditional chinatown. This so-called "Chinatown" is actually inhabited by the minority ethnic Chinese who were born in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Louisiana

New Orleans

The first original Chinatown of New Orleans existed on Tulane Avenue and South Rampart Street in the Faubourg Ste. Marie quarter from the 1870s until the 1930s and most of the original Chinatown buildings were razed in the late 1950s. A newer, synthetic "Chinatown" was developed in 2003 on Behrman Highway in suburban Terrytown.

Maryland

Baltimore

There existed a "Chinatown" on Park Ave. in Baltimore, which was dominated by laundries and restaurants. There have been remaining several Chinese restaurants of the community these days on Park Ave. between West Franklin Street and West Saratoga Street although in this neighbourhood are many abandoned buildings. This happened because many of the Asians in Baltimore traded in urban living for a suburb of Baltimore named Columbia. But there has been some talk about a new asiatown in a neighbourhood named Charles Village, Baltimore, due to a significant Korean and Indian populations. Also it will be developed by Washington D.C. businessman Tony Cheng who will be trying to attract Asian restaurants.

Also, an extension of Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown exists in Rockville, Maryland, near Maryland Route 355 (Rockville Pike) with Taiwanese businesses.

Massachusetts

Boston

The sole established Chinatown of New England is in Boston, on Beach Street and Washington Street near South Station between Downtown Crossing and Tufts Medical Center. There are many Chinese, Japanese, Cambodian and Vietnamese restaurants and markets.

In the pre-Chinatown era, the area was settled in succession by Irish, Jewish, Italian and Syrian immigrants as each group replaced another. Syrians were later succeeded by Chinese immigrants, and Chinatown was established in 1890. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Boston's Chinatown was located in the Combat Zone, which served as Boston's red light district, but sandwiched between the dual expansions of Chinatown from the East and Emerson College from the West, the Combat Zone has shrunk to almost nothing.^{[citation needed]}

Currently, Boston's Chinatown is experiencing a threat from gentrification policies as large luxury residential towers are built in and surrounding an area that was overwhelmingly three, four, and five-story small apartment buildings intermixed with retail and light-industrial spaces.^[2]^[3]

Michigan

Detroit

One of several Chinese strip malls on John R Road in Madison Heights.

Detroit's Chinatown was originally located at Third Avenue, Porter St and Bagley St, now the permanent site of the MGM Grand Casino.^[4] In the 1960s, urban renewal efforts, as well as the opportunity for the Chinese business community to purchase property led to a relocation centered at Cass Avenue and Peterboro.^[5] However, Detroit's urban decline and escalating street violence, primarily the killing of restaurateur, Tommie Lee, led to the new location's demise, with the last remaining Chinese food restaurant in Chinatown finally shut its doors in the early 2000s. Although there is still a road marker indicating "Chinatown" and a mural commemorating the struggle for justice in the Vincent Chin case, only one Chinese American establishment still operates within the borders of the City of Detroit. The Association of Chinese Americans Detroit Outreach Center^[6], a small community center, serves a handful of new Chinese immigrants who still reside in the Cass Corridor.

Missouri

St. Louis

St. Louis' original Chinatown, also called "Hop Alley", was in the city of St. Louis, Missouri ^[7] before it was eventually replaced by Busch Stadium in the 1960s. During its prime, it had a plethora of hand laundries, but later Chinese restaurants became the primary economic source. By that time, attempts at establishing another Chinatown largely met with failure. This partly attributed to the fact that American-born Chinese descendants of the original settlers were fanning out throughout St. Louis and taking on mainstream careers than to slave away in their families' businesses.

Nevada

Las Vegas

The only Chinatown in Las Vegas was initially just a large shopping center called "Chinatown Plaza." It is the so-called "first master-planned Chinatown in America" with the Chinese American supermarket chain 99 Ranch Market serving as its anchor. The plaza location is west of the Las Vegas Strip and Interstate 15 at 4255 Spring Mountain Road, just outside the casino areas in what is a typical American neighborhood. The area has been officially officially designated "Chinatown" by Nevada governor Kenny Guinn and by city of Las Vegas with parking areas allotted for buses as well. (The Chinatown has its own designated exit off-ramp sign on Interstate 15.) Furthermore, the Chinese American population tends to be somewhat more dispersed throughout Las Vegas than in Southern California.

New Jersey

Newark

Chinatown, Newark, was a Chinese enclave in Downtown Newark, New Jersey, that thrived in the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century and was centered around Mulberry Arcade.

New York

New York City

The New York metropolitan area now contains at least 6 Chinatowns, including the original Chinatown in Manhattan, as well as two successors in Queens (the Flushing Chinatown and the Elmhurst Chinatown), two in Brooklyn (the Sunset Park Chinatown and the Avenue U Chinatown), and one in Edison, New Jersey.

Manhattan

The Manhattan Chinatown is one of the largest Chinese communities outside of Asia. The old Chinatown of New York City is centered around the junction of Canal Street and Mott Street in Manhattan, but at least four other Chinatowns have cropped up in other parts of New York City. Manhattan's Chinatown is home to mostly Cantonese and Fuzhou immigrants. During the late 1980s and 1990s, an influx of Fuzhou immigrants moved in and the Little Fuzhou community emerged on the East Broadway portion and Eldridge street portion within Manhattan's Chinatown after the waves of Cantonese immigrants settled and formed their community in Manhattan's Chinatown. However, by the 2000s, the Fuzhou population growth slowed. The second Chinatown is on Roosevelt Avenue and Main Street in Flushing, Queens, and the third Chinatown is in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn around 50th to 65th Streets along 8th Avenue. A fourth and rapidly growing Chinatown is in Elmhurst, Queens, north of Queens Blvd on Broadway, and the fifth and newest one is cropping up in Brooklyn, see below. The original Chinatown of NY began in the middle 1800s along Mott Street south of Canal Street.

Queens

The intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue, the business center for Flushing located at the terminus of the Number 7 subway line on the westernmost edge of the neighborhood has a concentration of Chinese and Korean small businesses, among others. Chinese-owned businesses in particular predominate in the area along Main Street and the immediate area west of it.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Brooklyn

A relatively new Chinatown, perhaps only 15 years old, is in Sunset Park and has grown from a seedy, drunken neighborhood that had been virtually abandoned by its earlier immigrant settlers into a vibrant Chinese immigrant community with numerous businesses. "Brooklyn Chinatown" now extends for 20 blocks along 8th Avenue, from 42nd to 62nd Streets. Like Manhattan's Chinatown, Brooklyn's Chinatown was an all Cantonese community as well, however in the 2000s, Brooklyn's Chinatown has been experiencing an increasing influx of Fuzhou immigrants and is replacing the Cantonese at a fast significant rate than Manhattan's Chinatown and is now home to mostly Fuzhou immigrants. In the past during the late 1980s and 1990s, the Little Fuzhou within Manhattan's Chinatown was the first Fuzhou community/population being established in NYC after waves of Cantonese settled in and formed their community in Manhattan's Chinatown, but by the 2000s, the Fuzhou growth slowed. As the Fuzhou population/community growth slowed within Manhattan's Chinatown, the Fuzhou immigrant growth began to increase in Brooklyn's Chinatown and today Brooklyn's Chinatown is home to the fastest growing Fuzhou population than Manhattan's Chinatown and all other Chinese communities in NYC. Since Brooklyn's Chinatown is overall smaller than Manhattan's Chinatown, including experiencing the fastest growing Fuzhou population currently in NYC, all of Brooklyn's Chinatown is quickly becoming the new Little Fuzhou and is replacing the Little Fuzhou within Manhattan's Chinatown as being the largest Fuzhou population/community in NYC at a very tremendous rate. Unlike Manhattan's Chinatown still successfully continues to carry a large Cantonese population and the large Cantonese community identity in the western portion/core section of Manhattan's Chinatown established decades ago where the Cantonese residents have a place of gathering for shopping and working, Brooklyn's Chinatown is now experiencing the fastest declining Cantonese population in NYC and is quickly failing on retaining the Cantonese community identity.

North Carolina

North Carolina does not have a "Chinatown" as such, but the state capital Raleigh is home to the North Raleigh Chinese Language School and to a Confucius Institute based at North Carolina State University. Both schools focus on language classes but also offer classes on Chinese culture and art. In addition, there are also Chinese preschools and a dance troup in the broader Triangle area, encompasing the city of Durham and the towns of Cary and Chapel Hill. Similarly, the area surrounding the state's largest city Charlotte has some Chinese schools.

Ohio

Cleveland

Cleveland's Chinatown (often referred to as Asiatown) is one of several ethnic communities within the city proper, along with Little Italy and Slavic Village. The neighborhood is centered around St. Clair, Superior, and Payne Avenues just east of the central business district. The area also falls into the district limits of the Quadrangle which includes several colleges and mid-rise offices and light industrial areas. Several large Asian markets have opened in recent years, with at least two more under construction in 2007. Recently, the neighborhood has become a hot spot for warehouse conversions into residential lofts.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City's Chinatown, known as Asia District (or also the Asian District), represents a new trend in major cities in the United States that traditionally did not have a concentrated Asian population. Today's Asia District has transformed a once blighted urban area near Oklahoma City University north of downtown into a myriad of restaurants, Asian supermarkets, shoppes, and galleries popular with the rapidly growing mosaic of Asian residents of the city. Most of the businesses in the area, such as markets and restaurants, tend to be run by Vietnamese or Chinese American immigrants.

The area began as a Little Saigon back in the mid-1980s due to the more than 17,000 Vietnamese refugees that inhabited the area at that time, but was recently renamed by the city to Asia District to better reflect the true colors of the neighborhood.

There was once a historic Chinatown located in Downtown Oklahoma City, in tunnels under what is now the Cox Convention Center. The area was inhabited by the first Chinese immigrants who came to the area via the railroad around the 1950s.

Oregon

Portland

There is a Chinatown, on NW 4th Ave. just north of W Burnside St., in the Old Town Chinatown district of Portland. It is not very active and contains no actual Chinese markets. Unfortunately, many storefronts have remained abandoned for some time and not many Chinese restaurants remain. Some of the restaurants are the historic chop suey restaurant, Good Taste which serves Cantonese BBQ and noodle soups, Golden Horse which serves a variety of dishes but specializes in seafood dishes, Fong Chong which serves dim-sum, and House of Louie which also serves dim-sum and other Chinese dishes. The building of the Portland chapter of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association still remains in Chinatown and it is open to the public. Unlike other Chinatowns in other cities, the population of Chinatown has not been renewed by later waves of immigration.

The Portland Classical Chinese Garden, located on NW 3st Ave. and NW Everett St., is also a major feature in Chinatown. It was designed by artisans from Suzhou, China.

Given the expensive rents and tourist orientation of Chinatown and following the dual Chinatown pattern as present in several major metropolitan areas of North America, the thoroughfare of SE 82nd Ave. in Montavilla neighborhood of Portland is home to the city's newer Chinese business district, already with immigrant-oriented markets, Chinese seafood restaurants, and Vietnamese noodle eateries. It has been already picked up by the media as a "new chinatown". The Montavilla area has moderate drug problems.^[11]

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia

There is a Chinatown centered around 10th and Race Streets in Philadelphia. Over the years, several blocks were lost to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and the Vine Street Expressway. For the past few years, city officials have restricted redevelopment in Chinatown, particularly as a result of efforts by a coalition of grassroots groups (pan-ethnic, labor groups) working together to preserve Chinatown. Today the lost blocks have been regained by the expansion of Chinatown to Arch Street and north of Vine Street. Asian restaurants, funeral homes, and grocery stores are common sights. Philadelphia's Chinatown residents are mostly of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodian peoples. Korean, Japanese, and Filipino are also residents. Chinatown contains a mixture of businesses and organizations owned by the pan-Chinese diaspora, as Mainland Chinese, Vietnamese Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, and Malaysian Chinese residing in the Philadelphia area call Chinatown home.

Pittsburgh

A now defunct Chinatown was located on Grant Street and Boulevard of the Allies in Pittsburgh, where two Chinese restaurants remain. The On Leong Society was located there. The Chinese population in Pittsburgh has grown recently . Newer stores exist on Penn Avenue near 18th Street in the Strip District. Chinese live in various neighborhoods throughout the city and suburbs.

Texas

Austin

A brand new Chinatown was constructed in 2006 on Lamar Boulevard, featuring a supermarket and 40 stores. The ribbon cutting ceremony was attended by Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. Chinatown has proven to be a valuable addition to Austin and its Asian American communities. Asian grocer My Thanh Supermarket is the feature anchor of this special retail complex. It also hosts a variety of Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants and specialty shops. A grand Chinese-style arch, paifang, will be built to mark its entrance. As of October 2006, not every store was open yet.^[12]

Houston

Yet another example of the new-Chinatown/old-Chinatown contrast is Houston, where there is an old and largely disappearing Chinatown near the Convention Center on Chartre Street and McKinney Street in Downtown Houston.

Houston's Chinatown is not as high-profile as others like it around North America. Chinatown in eastern downtown retains a few restaurants but no habitations. To reverse the decline of Chinatown in Downtown Houston, business leaders have attempted to lure tourists as plans have been drawn up to develop a Chinese paifang on McKinney Street as its entryway.

El Paso

Archaeological work has been done to uncover the long history of El Paso's Chinatown, which stood from 1881 to around the 1920s. The area is significant in which it attracted a large number of Chinese workers in the American Southwest and there a Chinatown sprung up.

Washington

Seattle

Seattle's current Chinese neighborhood came into being around 1910 when much of the former Chinatown along Washington Street was condemned for street construction. The Chinese population began rebuilding along King Street, south of Seattle's Nihonmachi. Chinese investors pooled their resources to build several substantial buildings to house businesses, organizations and residences, such as the East Kong Yick Building.

In the 1950s Seattle officials designated Chinatown as part of the International District (I.D.) due to the diverse Asian population that, by then, included Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and Koreans. By the late 1970s, Vietnamese immigrants also formed a Little Saigon next to Chinatown, within the ID.

There has been some controversy over the name "International District." Some local Chinese Americans reject the term, preferring the historic designation "Chinatown" for the area as a source of pride. Others, especially American born generations of Asians, accept the ID designation as more appropriate due to their embrace of a more "pan-Asian" identity. Subsequently, the city redesignated the area the Chinatown-International District.

Olympia

Olympia's small Chinatown is no longer extant. It formed initially on Fourth Avenue near Capital Way, not long after Olympia was founded. It moved in the 1880s to Fifth Avenue and then to Water Street in the 1910s. The remaining buildings were razed in 1943 after the last few residents departed. The city placed an historical marker at the site of Olympia's last Chinatown at the north end of Capitol Lake in 2004.

Spokane

A fair sized Chinatown existed in Spokane for years that started when the railroad came through in 1883. It consisted of a network of alleys between Front Avenue (today's Spokane Falls Boulevard) and Main Avenue that stretched east from Howard Avenue to Bernard Street about four blocks. The Chinese population gradually thinned out until the alley became practically abandoned by the 1940s. All the remains of Chinatown were demolished for parking for Spokane's Expo '74.

Tacoma

There was also a significant historic Chinatown located in Downtown Tacoma. In November 1885 disgruntled whites drove out the Chinese population and burned down Chinatown. Recently, a special remembrance garden called the Chinese Reconciliation Park has been built a short distance away.^[13]

Washington, D.C.

The old Chinatown of Washington, D.C. is on I Street and H Street, from 5th to 7th St NW. Today, it has roughly 10 Chinese restaurants, mostly geared towards tourists. It has been part of a redevelopment movement occurring in the Downtown Washington, D.C. area. Mainstream restaurant and retail chains have mostly filled in Chinatown.