Chinatowns in the Americas

This article surveys individual Chinatowns in North America.

For the purposes of this article North America is defined as Canada and the United States.
For information on Chinatowns in Mexico and Central America, please refer to Chinatowns in Latin America.
For a broad analysis of the development and character of Chinatowns in the region, see Chinatown patterns in North America.
The common features of Chinatowns and social problems common to Chinatown are covered in the main Chinatown article.

In general, there are three types of Chinatowns in North America: frontier and rural Chinatowns, urban Chinatowns, and suburban Chinatowns.

Unique Chinese-style architecture characterize the streets of San Francisco's historic Chinatown, the largest in the United States.

Chinatowns in Canada

Alberta

There are actually two Edmonton Chinatowns: The newer Chinatown North dominated by Hong Kong Chinese emigrees and the older Chinatown South.

The Chinatown in Calgary (see Chinatown, Calgary) is the largest in Alberta and one of the largest in Canada. It stretches east-west from 1 St SE to 2 St SW and north-south from Bow River to 4 Av SW. This Chinatown consists of a large shopping centre called Dragon City Mall and a Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre located at 1 St SW. Another neighbourhood with a distinctly Asian cultural flare is forming along the Centre Street corridor to the north of downtown and the Bow River. There are also a number of other areas in Calgary's suburbs that have an especially high Asian population.

A Chinese-based shopping centre called Pacific is located between 36 St NE and 16 Av NE. it consists of a large supermarket called T & T Supermarket (the largest Asian supermarket in Canada), a video store, a bookstore, two Chinese restaurants, and other various shops.

British Columbia

Vancouver

File:Vancouver Chinatown Gate.jpg

Old Gate of Chinatown, Vancouver.

Richmond's Golden Village, the "new Chinatown" of Greater Vancouver.

The history and influence is great in the Vancouver area, that the city and metropolitan area has earned the derogatory moniker and reputation as "Hongcouver". Vancouver's Chinatown is the largest in British Columbia and the second largest in North America, after Toronto's. The main centre of the older Chinatown is Pender and Main Streets in downtown Vancouver, which is also, along with Victoria's, one of the oldest Chinatowns in North America, and has been the setting for a variety of modern Canadian literature.

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.

The Golden Village neighbourhood of Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, is the exception to North American Chinatown trends described above. Unlike the Mandarin-dominated or the pan-Chinese new "Chinatowns" in the U.S., Richmond is practically a "Hong Kong Town" and hence, it does tends to be more or less Hong Kong-centric in terms of its offerings. However, the semi-official name is Asia West, under a consortium of Asian shopping centres to promote the area as a tourist attraction. It is quite possibly the largest Chinatown in North America, complete with several malls, a large grocery store, such as T & T Supermarket and an endless number of restaurants and small businesses. Many top Hong Kong chefs have been lured to Richmond-area restaurants.

As of 2002, one-third of Richmond's population was of Chinese descent—which is approximately 55,000 people. Many affluent Hong Kong Chinese, or known slangily as "Hongkongers", especially chose and came to the Vancouver area to escape the perceived implications of handover of sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997 from Britain to the communist Mainland China.

The Richmond area is 10 kilometres south of downtown Vancouver near Highway 99 and Westminster Highway; its main street is No. 3 Road.

During the 1990s, the Chinese Canadian population moved away from the old Chinatown in downtown Vancouver and southward into the suburbs of the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. In addition to Richmond, there are now some other Chinese immigrant communities developing in Burnaby and Coquitlam.

Currently there is new momentum near Vancouver's old Chinatown consistent with the venerable condominium boom seen in most of downtown. A new Taiwanese enclave, an international village mall, and several new developments promise to rejuvenate downtown's Chinatown and keep it anchored as the centre of Chinese Canadian culture, as promised on the new Millennium Gate at Pender Street entrance.

Victoria

A very small Chinatown can be found in the provincial capital of Victoria, although it is mostly touted as a tourist attraction. It is centred on Fisgard Street and is, along with Vancouver's, one of the oldest Chinatowns in North America. There are about two dozen Chinese-oriented businesses in this area.

Manitoba

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

Ontario

Toronto

Toronto's largest Chinatown is centered on Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street. To the east of the Don River is Toronto Chinatown East, at the corner of Broadview Avenue and Gerrard Street. With a population of over 400,000 Chinese, Toronto has the largest concentration of "chinatowns" in North America when considering all five major chinatowns in the metropolitan region. Toronto's Chinatown and Chinese communities are highly represented by Hong Kong immigrants and families. In the last decade, mostly after 1997 Hong Kong handover, influx of immigrants from mainland China have surpassed the flow of Hong Kong immigration. However, most Chinese businesses and restaurants are still conducted in Cantonese. The pan-Chinese diasporas is generally segregate, with the Vietnamese Chinese, who are arrived generally as impoverish refugees, residing in old Chinatown and suburban Mississauga in western Toronto. The Hong Kong Chinese arrived with capital and are tend to concentrated in upscale Markham and Richmond Hill in the northern Toronto area. The Mainland Chinese has also concentrate in older Chinatown.

In addition to the Chinatown around Dundas and Spadina and the East Chinatown on Gerrard, there are multiple other Chinatowns throughout Toronto's suburbs, especially those in Agincourt and Milliken: Streching west from Brimley along Sheppard Avenue to blocks west of Kennedy and north from Sheppard to Steeles. Mississauga, Richmond Hill along Bayview/Hwy 7 to Leslie/Hwy 7 and north from Hwy 7 to roughly 16th avenue.

To the north of the city of Toronto, the Markham and Richmond Hill, Ontario are noted for its large concentration of Chinese strip malls; in 2001, 30 percent of Markham's population, or 62,355 people, was of Chinese descent. Mentionable Chinese malls in Markham and Richmond Hill include Pacific Mall (largest Chinese mall in North America with over 300 stores), Market Village, Metro Square, and First Markham Place, Times Square, Commerce Gate, Chalmers Gate and Golden Gate Plaza. The future addition of Splendid China Tower Mall at the border of Scarborough and Markham will mark the entrance of the next largest Chinese mall in North America.

There have been a number of businesses, namely restaurants that have flourished in the large Chinese communities, enabling expansion in different Chinatowns across the city. For instance, Congee Wong Restaurants and Asian Legend Restaurants have grown an expanding chain of locations to service the continuing expansion of Chinese influence in the Toronto area. The incredible popular Sam Woo Restaurant chain, which was started in Chinatown, Los Angeles and operates in various Chinese-spanking communities in Southern California, also operate several locations in these Chinese communities of Toronto.

Toronto's Chinatowns include businesses from several regions of China, but they also are dominated by businesses set up by Hong Kong companies as well as immigrants from Hong Kong and their families. Also, the old Chinatown of Toronto of Spadina Avenue has certainly experienced a Vietnamese influence, with several Vietnamese restaurants in the landscape. Vietnamese influences have definitely been felt in the old Chinatown at Spadina and Dundas but also near the Jane and Finch corridor and Missisauga Chinatown plazas where countless Pho and ethnic Vietnamese restaurants have emerged.

Ottawa

Ottawa's "Chinatown" is actually named the Asian Village and it is located in the Centretown area, on Somerset Street West near Bronson Avenue. It is a community mixes with the ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese-oriented businesses. [1]

Windsor

An informal but sizable Chinatown is found in Windsor, in close proximity to the Ambassador Bridge on Wyandotte Street West within walking distance from the University of Windsor. This Chinatown is also frequented by people from Michigan and Ohio since Metro Detroit lacks a Chinatown.

Hamilton

A Chinatown is bounded by Canon Street from James Street to Bay Street North and Vine Street from James Street to Bay Street North.

Kitchener

A Chinatown is located along King Street in the southern portion of downtown.

Quebec

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).

The Chinatown is known as Quartier chinois in French. Hong Kong Chinese have especially settled in the area. Over the years, Vietnamese, especially of Chinese descent—who are already French-speaking before arriving—have set up shops and restaurants in the area as well.

A newer Chinese commercial centre of suburban Montreal is on Boulevard Taschereau in Brossard, where Chinese Canadian make up a fairly sizable potion of the population. Began in the late 1980s, Hong Kong Chinese immigrant arrived prior to the 1997 Communist Chinese takeover of British Hong Kong. Sadly, Brossard experienced a drop in its population of Chinese origin and many strip mall businesses were been abandoned as some Hong Kongers returned to meet their uncertain fate in the Communist-rule era of Hong Kong.

Quebec City

Chinatown once graced this city, but Autoroute Dufferin-Montmorency cuts through what was once its location. Some restaurants remain and a few Chinese residents. Most have moved onto Montreal or Toronto.

Saskatchewan

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.

In Saskatoon, the Chinatown can be found in the Riversdale district of that city.

Dick's café in downtown Redvers was a focal point of Chinese culture in the town.

Chinatowns in the United States

Arizona

A Chinatown-themed shopping center built to traditional Chinese architecture was opened in 1997 near the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The Chinese-American supermarket chain 99 Ranch Market operates a branch there. The shopping complex has attracted few tenants due to high rents. However, throughout Phoenix, there are many pockets of Chinese communities and areas nearby contain many Chinese supermarkets and restaurants.

California

Given its relative proximity to East Asia and Southeast Asia, California has the largest number of historic and contemporary Chinatowns in North America. The state boasts of the largest number of Chinatowns of all types, including the most well-known and largest Chinatown in San Francisco, the first all-Chinese rural town of Locke to be built by Chinese immigrants, and the first "Suburban Chinatown" that includes the cities of Monterey Park, Alhambra, San Gabriel and neighboring areas.

Many early Chinese immigrants were processed at Angel Island (now a California state park) in the San Francisco Bay area, which is equivalent to New York's Ellis Island for European immigrants.

Northern California

San Francisco

One of the largest, most notorious, most prominent and most highly-visited in North America is the San Francisco Chinatown, which is predominantly Cantonese-speaking, though many immigrants from Mainland China are also fluent in Mandarin. While downtown Chinatown is the Chinese cultural center, smaller neighborhoods in the Richmond (Geary Avenue, Clement Street) and Sunset (Noriega Street, Irving Street west of 19th Avenue) districts have developed in recent years, coexisting with ethnic Russian and Korean businesses.

Founded in 1850 or thereabouts, 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 the tourist annually. 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. However, many ethnic Chinese - whether American-born Chinese or newer immigrant from the Hong Kong, Mainland China, Vietnam - do not reside today in Chinatown but throughout the city of San Francisco as well as the surrounding Oakland and San Jose areas, but Chinatown remains the historical anchor. Chinatown has also remained the symbol center as city politicians have made it a de rigueur stop during campaigns. Additionally Chinatown also hosts the largest Chinese old year parade in North America, with corporate sponsors such as Bank of America and dragon dance teem from the San Francisco Police Department. The first Chinese-American police chief of the SFPD also becoming the first in the United States and also was oversee previous the police precinct of Chinatown.

San Francisco's Chinatown has been shown in numerous movies and television shows, and can boast 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 visit to the People's Republic of China in the early 1970s, 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. However, the Chinese seafood restaurants with the best prices is said not to be in Chinatown itself but in Richmond district that new Chinatown and in the suburbans of nay Arear. In some cases these seafood restaurants are chains of the Hong Kong.

San Jose/Silicon Valley
While the city of San Jose proper did have several Chinatowns in the past, they are all extinct today. Other examples of "Chinatowns" in the suburbs in California are suburban Fremont, Milpitas and Cupertino in the south San Francisco Bay Area. These three cities are located in Silicon Valley, where large numbers of Taiwanese Americans and Mainland Chinese nationals (many of whom are on U.S. work visas) are employed in the high-tech industry and where large number of Taiwanese high-tech firms are headquartered. Foster City also has a large Taiwanese American population. Cupertino remains the cultural center.

There are many Chinese shopping centers scattered around the Silicon Valley, which may have a social and economic impact on the old Chinatown in San Francisco. Silicon Valley tends to be mostly Taiwanese-dominated, whereas the Chinatowns of San Francisco and Oakland tend to be more heavily Cantonese-speaking.

Oakland

Oakland's Chinatown is frequently referred to as "Oakland Chinatown" in order to distinguish it from nearby San Francisco's Chinatown. It is a pan-Asian neighborhood which reflects Oakland's diverse Asian community of Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Japanese, Cambodian, Laotian, Mien, Thai, and others.

North of Oakland, there are several Asian-themed strip malls scattered in the Bay Area suburb of San Pablo.

Sacramento
Sacramento has a relatively small urban Chinatown. The city consists mostly of Vietnamese American businesses. There are also other Asian strip malls such as Pacific Rim Plaza and a major Asian supermarket. Sacramento has a long Chinese influence dating back to the California gold rush period. However, in the past decade, Sacramento has seen a booming ethnic Vietnamese population with a large migration from other parts of California.

Fresno

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.

Southern California

Artesia

The city of Artesia has an emerging and much smaller Taiwanese commercial district in South Street and Pioneer Boulevard.

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 occupied Third Street between Arrowhead and Mountain View. 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. Many Cantonese- and Chaozhou-speaking Chinese Vietnamese and Chinese Cambodian immigrants also own and operate bazaars in Chinatown, which are popular destinations, essentially selling low-quality merchandise at terribly low prices —with products as varied as cheap woodsilk towels, sandal wood soaps, apparel, and toys—that undercut long established Taishanese origin dealers. New "Chinatowns" for the Chinese immigrants (as opposed to L.A. tourists) have been developed in the Los Angeles suburbs of Monterey Park and San Gabriel (see below for the sections entitled San Gabriel Valley and Orange County).

Orange County

The upscale southern Orange County city of Irvine (爾灣二店), located several miles south of Disneyland, contains yet another Taiwanese-dominant commercial and cultural center with several strip malls containing mostly Taiwanese businesses. It is on Culver Drive. 99 Ranch Market and Sam Woo Restaurant are the most frequented businesses in the area.

The top-rated University High School and University of California, Irvine (UCI) are major draws for several upper-class Taiwanese immigrant parents. Incidentally, Asian Americans form the majority of UCI's undergraduate student population. Indeed, Irvine's Chinese American population has grown significantly over the years. Pao Fa Temple, one of the largest Buddhist temples and monasteries in the Western Hemisphere, has been opened.

San Diego

San Diego had a historic Chinatown, formerly around Market Street and Third Avenue, that has disappeared over time. No major "Chinatown" exists in the city anymore, so the closest equivalent that the San Diego area has to a Asian enclave - with Chinese and Korean - would be found about 10 miles away from the city center to the north on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and Convoy Street in the Clairemont Mesa neighborhood, with an indoor mall anchored by 99 Ranch Market and Sam Woo Restaurant and nearby, although incontinguos, pan-Asian strip malls and restaurants. This area serves as a cultural point for Chinese Americans living in the San Diego area and needing a fix of fairly decent Chinese food or Chinese-language newspapers, particularly the Los Angeles edition of World Journal.

San Gabriel Valley

In the Greater Los Angeles area, there are several suburban Chinatowns throughout the San Gabriel Valley region.

In a sense, the old Chinatown of Los Angeles has ceased to be the economic and cultural node for the local Chinese American community within the Los Angeles area, with many immigrants from Taiwan, Mainland China, and Vietnam. There are also smaller, but still substantial, numbers of immigrants from Hong Kong. In addition, the region has also been considered by food critics—for example, of the Los Angeles Times and The Atlantic Monthly—as having some of the best Chinese cuisines in the nation due to the large variety of competing Chinese restaurants (whereas there are very few authentic Chinese restaurants in the more well-known Los Angeles Westside).

The region also features the large Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, among the largest Buddhist temples.

Monterey Park

The suburban city of Monterey Park, nicknamed "Little Taipei", was among the first satellite Chinatowns to be developed. It once contained a large Taiwanese population, but due to the in-migration of established Taiwanese immigrants to other suburbs in the early 1990s, their numbers have dwindled and the Cantonese-speakers have gradually become predominant in the city. With its growing population, Monterey Park also received media attention in a 1985 article in Forbes magazine.

Since the mid-1980s and on, Monterey Park has experienced continual immigration of working-class and upper-income mainland Chinese and Chinese-Vietnamese. In this city and adjacent areas, the number of Taiwanese-owned businesses actually began to decline and there are several Chinese Vietnamese-owned businesses, such as restaurants and supermarkets. Countless Chinese-owned businesses occupy nearly the main thoroughfares of the city. There are many popular competing large Hong Kong seafood restaurants found within the city.

Alhambra

To the north of Monterey Park, the satellite Chinatown in the city of Alhambra has rapidly grown during the 1980s. With an Asian descent population of 47.2%, the area on Valley Boulevard is lined with numerous Chinese-owned banks, restaurants, cafés, and boutiques mostly geared to younger Asian descent populations. Alhambra also hosts the annual San Gabriel Valley Lunar New Year Parade and Festival (the fourth largest celebration in the U.S., after those in the old Chinatowns of San Francisco, Manhattan, and Los Angeles).

San Gabriel

The adjoining neighboring city of San Gabriel, with 48.9% population of Asian descent, has a mix pan-Chinese community in the area, while the "Chinatown" in the city of Los Angeles remains tiny, touristy, and Cantonese-speaking. The area also on Valley Boulevard started off as an area serving Chinese Vietnamese refugees but it has grown to include a mix of trendy and utilitarian businesses owned by Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, and ethnic Vietnamese immigrants. It is among the largest suburban "Chinatown" business districts in California and a large shopping complex anchored by 99 Ranch Market is among the highly popular landmarks in the area (a panoramic pic of this retail center is viewable on www.milpitasquare.com/San Gabriel Square at Dusk.htm). The city serves somewhat as a buffer zone or convergence, since residentially, a significant number of wealthy Taiwanese immigrants reside in the upscale community of San Marino (bordering north of San Gabriel) and the blue-collar Chinese Vietnamese live in working-class Rosemead (located south and east of San Gabriel).

Arcadia

The city of Arcadia has an emerging Taiwanese commercial district south on Huntington Drive, on Baldwin Avenue. The area already contains several supermarkets. The only U.S. branch of the Taipei-based dumpling restaurant Dingbat Tai Fung operates in the Los Angeles area, specfically in Arcadia.

Rowland Heights

Another so-called suburban "Chinatown," so to speak, includes the Taiwanese-driven Rowland Heights (approximately 20 miles east of the Los Angeles Chinatown) with its fragmented smattering of shopping centers, concentrated on Colima Road (approximately between Fullerton Road and Nogales Avenue). After the mass exodus of Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese Americans from Monterey Park in the late 1980s and 1990s, the Los Angeles edition of the Chinese-language paper World Journal dubbed Rowland Heights the "new Little Taipei." There are also several large Taiwanese origin populations living in nearby hillside residential communities, although many Mainland Chinese, Korean Chinese, and ethnic Korean immigrants reside there as well. Rowland Heights serves as the main business district. The Chinese strip malls are mixed with separate strip malls containing Korean American businesses. Just off the main Colima Road corridor in Rowland Heights, the neon-lit and highly packed Diamond Plaza is an especially vibrant two-story strip mall containing businesses - restaurants, tea places, bakeries, pool hall, and boutiques - geared towards both immigrants from Taiwan as well as American-born Chinese. Additionally, more and more Asian businesses are occupying other strip malls in Rowland Heights and adjacent Hacienda Heights, California formerly filled with chain and independent stores that catered to the general population but have since gone out of business, making this a hybrid "Chinatown"/Koreatown".

Outside these main suburban Chinatown areas, there are also many isolated pockets of authentic Chinese strip-malls, restaurants, and supermarkets scattered in parts of the San Gabriel Valley, which cater solely to the local Chinese immigrant community.

Florida

An artificial Chinatown is in touristy Kissimmee as part of a theme park called Splendid China. It is marketed as a "Chinatown" for non-Chinese.

Georgia

In the Atlanta area, fledging new pan-Asian shopping centers are on Buford Highway in the suburb of Doraville. While the city of Atlanta proper does not have a traditional "Chinatown" or "Koreatown" as such, this area has become unique. The area started as Korean immigrant neighborhood, but refugees from Southeast Asia began arriving and established Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants started moving away from traditional coastal immigrant urban centers, such as California. However, with a mix of ethnic Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese populations, the official name is the International Village. While the area is pan-Asian in general, it is also pan-Chinese in itself with many businesses and shopping centers invested, owned, or staffed by Taiwanese, Chinese Vietnamese, Chinese Indonesian, and Chinese Thai immigrants. The variety of strip malls sport Asian names, bringing the area an unique multicultural character and experience.

In the 1970s and 1980s, just prior to the incoming of the Asian immigrants, local employer General Motors laid-off thousands of workers in the area and light manufacturing began shuttering, thus resulting in blight. For several years, several shopping centers were abandoned and neglected by previous owners. New capital by Asian investors have helped greatly contribute to the revitalization of the area. The area has grown a great deal, now the international Chinese-language newspaper World Journal maintains a regional Atlanta office in Doraville. Interestingly, as with Bellaire Boulevard in Houston, Tejas, the area on Bufoard Highway has the highest concentrations of Asian businesses and it is definitely one of a kind in southeastern Dixie.

Hawaii

The Chinatown of Honolulu, on North Hotel Street and Mounakea Street, contains traditional ethnic Chinese businesses. Chinatown was started by early Zhongshanese-speaking settlers in the 1890s and, as with other Chinatowns in the United States, it was noted for its unsanitary conditions. 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. 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. There is a monument in his honor in Honolulu's Chinatown.

Illinois

The Chinatown in Chicago has 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.

Chicagoans also refer to a Southeast Asian community in the north side as the "New Chinatown". But at this point, this "new" chinatown still pales in size and scope to the more traditional chinatown.

Louisiana

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

There exists a Chinatown on Park Ave. in Baltimore, Maryland. Also, an extension of Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown exists in Rockville, Maryland, near Maryland Route 355 (Rockville Pike).

Massachusetts

The sole established Chinatown of New England is in Boston, on Beach Street and Washington Street near the South Station. 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. The Syrians were later succeeded by Chinese immigrants, and Chinatown was established in 1890. From 1960s-1980s, Boston's Chinatown was located near 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. 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.

In recent years, a new satellite "Chinatown" has been rapidly emerging approximately 10 miles to the south on Hancock Street in suburban Quincy, due to the rapid influx of Hokkien-speaking Mainland Chinese immigrants from the province of Fujian as well as a large growing ethnic Vietnamese population. There are already several large Asian supermarkets such as the major Kam Man Foods and Super 88 supermarket chains, and other businesses that are giving the old Chinatown in downtown Boston a run for its money. Several businesses operating in Boston's Chinatown now have extensions in Quincy.

Michigan

One of several Chinese strip malls o John R Road in Madison Height.

Detroit's Chinatown was located on Cass Avenue and Peterboro Avenue before its destruction in the 1950s due to urban renewal. The last remaining Chinese food restaurant in Chinatown finally shut its doors in the 1990s. However, to this day, there are still road sign indicating "Chinatown", although nothing else actually remains of the community.

In the meantime, a new suburban "Chinatown", founded by later waves of immigrants, mixed with Taiwanese and Vietnamese businesses and housed in several strip malls, has emerged on John R Road in the predominantly WASP suburb of Madison Heights.

Missouri

An original Chinatown was in the city of St. Louis, Missouri before it was eventually replaced by Busch Stadium in the 1960s. By that time, attempts at establishing another Chinatown largely met with failure. Since the early 1990s, something short of a new "Chinatown" or basic Chinese businnes distict has been taking shape in the St. Louis suburb of University City on Olive Boulevard, approximately between 81st Street and McKnight Road. The business district of University City was once rundown but new immigrants have come in and revitalize the area with a large number of Chinese and pan-Asian restaurants, grocers, bakeries and immigrant-run health services. There have been some conflict over the proposed name of "Chinatown." In 2002, it was met with stiff opposition by some Negro residents and was also rejected by the city planning commission and, so instead, the name "U-City Olive Link" has been given to reflect and represent the cultural diversity of area. Some good Chinese restaurants include Lulu's Seafood Restaurant (which offers great dim sum brunch) and Won Ton King. Now steamy dim sum and a refreshing boba beverage are not difficult to find in the St. Louis area as such foods are available in the U-City Olive Link.

Nevada

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 (大華超級市場) 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. However, as the Chinese American community continues to grow in Las Vegas (Vegas is itself the fastest-growing city in the U.S.), many adjacent shopping centers have been developed while others are still in the planning and development stages. The area has become more competitive as the large Shun Fat Supermarket mega-store opened its doors in Chinatown in the early 2000s.

First built in early 1995, the infrastructure of Chinatown closely resembles many of the suburban Chinese business districts—that is, massive shopping centers and mini-malls with huge parking lots—found in California. However, it also has had the distinction of being officially designated a "Chinatown" by the city of Las Vegas with parking areas allotted for buses as well. (The Chinatown has its own 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

The Chinese population is fast-growing in New Jersey. There is now a booming new Chinatown with several authentic Chinese restaurants, banks and Asian supermarkets cropping up in suburban Edison, New Jersey on Route 27. An annual Chinese New Year event also takes place in this area. Over the past few years, many a Mainland Chinese immigrant professional have been moving away from the overcrowded New York City area (particularly Flushing, Queens and the rather clumsy and unwieldy Chinatown in Manhattan) and relocating to Edison, which is considered one of the most ethnically diverse suburban communities in New Jersey.

New York

New York City in particular contains a strong mainland Chinese presence. The Chinese that settle in New York City are often undocumented immigrants from the Fujian province of China. Although the Min-nan dialect (Hokkien) that they speak is similar to that spoken by the Taiwanese (Hoklo), there is relatively little social interaction between Fujianese and Taiwanese and indeed between the Fujianese and professionals and students from Mainland China. Although they would ordinarily have very little chance of gaining legal status, a large number of Fujianese benefited from the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1993 which granted permanent residence to PRC nationals in the United States as of 1990 regardless of whether they were students or not. Furthermore, the Cantonese-speaking population has also perceived the Fujianese as bringing crime and other social problems to Chinatown.

Chinese from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam—especially ethnic Lao, Khmer, and ethnic Vietnamese—also settled New York as Vietnam War refugees. Many Chinese New Yorkers also include people whose parents or grandparents were from or born in Latin America. The most important Chinese Latin American populations are Chinese Puerto Ricans who are natural-born Americans of Chinese descent, Chinese-Cubans who fled from the Fidel Castro regime, and Chinese Peruvians who immigrated during the Velasco era and in the aftermath of a major Peruvian earthquake. Large numbers of Japanese, Koreans, Thais, Malaysians, Indonesians, Filipinos, and Pacific Islanders (mostly Hawaiians, Guamanians, and Samoans) also settled New York's Chinatowns.

Manhattan

The old Chinatown of New York City is centered around Canal Street in Manhattan, but at least two other satellite Chinatowns have cropped up on Roosevelt Avenue and Main Street in Flushing, Queens, which has actually surpassed the old Manhattan Chinatown and is today the largest in the U.S., and in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn around 50th to 65th Streets along 8th Avenue. Some portions of Manhattan's Little Italy, largely vacated by Italian Americans as they headed to the suburbs, are being engulfed by Chinatown. Manhattan's Chinatown is further subdivided and segregated into several smaller communities such as "Little Fuzhou" or "Fuzhou Street" (on East Broadway) because of the high prevalence of Fujianese Mainland Chinese immigrants—who speak Hokkien Chinese—in the area.

Queens

New York being an exception to many things, Flushing, Queens is hardly suburban, and Manhattan Chinatown still has many Chinese markets and other businesses, as well as a large Chinese-American population, including first-generation immigrants who speak little or no English and work in garment factories in the neighborhood. As a sign of its emerging prominence, Manhattan's Chinatown has also been featured in several films and television.

On the other hand, Flushing has more Taiwanese immigrants and businesses while the working-class Manhattan Chinatown remains Cantonese and Fujianese. Many businesses are concentrated in many older downtown-style buildings along Roosevelt Avenue, with more shops catering to younger customers. Mainland Chinese immigrants have also made there way into Flushing. There are also mixed Korean influences in the enclave as well.

Brooklyn

The new Chinatown in Sunset Park has grown from a seedy, drunken neighborhood to a vibrant Chinese immigrant community with numerous businesses. "Brooklyn Chinatown" now extends for 20 blocks along 8th Avenue, from 42nd to 62nd Streets. With a booming population, the area is now extending into formerly Italian American communities such as Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst. New York's newest Chinatown is currently growing in another section of Brooklyn, along Avenue U in the Homecrest neighborhood.

North Carolina

There are two small Chinatowns in Charlotte, North Carolina, of which one is on the corner of North Tryon Street and Sugar Creek Road (Asian Corner Mall), and the other one is on Central Avenue near Briar Creek Rd.

Ohio

The small Chinatown of Cleveland, Ohio is one of several ethnic communities in that city, along with a Little Italy and Slavic Village. Chinatown is on Payne Avenue in the downtown area known as the Quadrangle.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City's Chinatown represents a new trend in urban cities that traditionally did not have a concentrated Asian population. Today, Oklahoma City's Asia District has transformed a once blighted urban area near Oklahoma City University due north of downtown into a myriad of restaurants, supermarkets, shoppes, and galleries representing the growing mosaic of Asian residents of the city.

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

Oregon

There is a Chinatown in the Old Town district of Portland. It is not very active and there are no actual Chinese markets in Chinatown. Unfortunately, many storefronts have remained abandoned for some time and only a few Chinese restaurants remain, including a historic chop suey restaurant. Indeed, Chinatown has received little immigration. There have been redevelopment proposals to turn Portland's Chinatown into an exotic ethnic playground for non-Chinese revelers, which will possibly further dilute the Chinese character of neighborhood.

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 Southeast 82nd Avenue in the gritty Montavilla district of Portland is home to the city's newer Chinese business district, already with immigrant-oriented markets, Chinese seafood restaurants, and Vietnamese noodle eateries. However, the Montavilla area is still marred by its drug and prostitution problems. The Oregonian article: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1121075803125670.xml&coll=7

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia

There is a Chinatown centered around Cherry Street and Race Street in Philadelphia. Over the years, parts of it kept being bought out for the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and the Vine Street Expressway. For the past few years, city officials have halted the buying up of Chinatown. Today it's growing fast, and spreading throughout Center City. Asian restaurants, funeral homes, and grocery stores are common sites. Philadelphia's Chinatown has residents mostly of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodian peoples. Korean, Japanese, and Filipino are also very common.

The counties surrounding Philadelphia, especially Montgomery and Bucks counties are seeing Asian culture becoming significant. Places such as Bensalem, King of Prussia, the Main Line, and dozens of other cities and townships, are well-known Asian centers outside of Philadelphia's Chinatown. Bensalem Township and King of Prussia have large populations of Indians. Both cities have various Indian supermarkets, and retail. Korean and Chinese stores such as H-Mart, and the video store Woori also continue to pop up.

Pittsburgh

An old defunct Chinatown exists on Grant Street and Boulevard of the Allies in Pittsburgh. Newer stores exist on Penn Avenue near 18th Street in the Strip District. As Pittsburgh's foreign-born population continues to grow, its once defunt Chinatown will become a vibrant place for Pittsburgh's Asian communtity.

Texas

Houston

Yet another example of the new-Chinatown/old-Chinatown contrast is Houston, Texas, where there is an old and largely disappearing Chinatown near the Convention Center on Chartre Street, and a new shopping center and strip mall-laden Chinatown on Bellaire Boulevard in the southwestern part of the city. In the early 1980s, Bellaire Boulevard initially started off as a Taiwanese immigrant strip mall called Diho Plaza anchored by a supermarket, but it has since grown to also include countless businesses owned by predominantly ethnic Vietnamese Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs, giving it a unique "Vietnamese" distinction. The most popular Chinese mall on Bellaire Boulevard is the indoor Hong Kong City Mall, which houses a market, karaoke, food court, boutiques, Vietnamese restaurants, and a Cantonese seafood restaurant.

Dallas

An emerging Asian/Chinese population in the Dallas area has established a number of Chinese supermarkets in the high-tech centered area, mainly in suburban Richardson and Plano.

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 Chinese workers in the American Southwest and there a Chinatown sprung up.

Washington

The large Chinatown of Seattle has been consolidated as the International District in the 1950s, which is a now concentrated pan-Asian business district enclave along with Vietnamese and other Asian-origin people within the city. In the 1980s, Vietnamese refugees and immigrants formed the nearby Little Saigon next to Chinatown. There has been some controversy over the name "International District", in which local Chinese American inhabitants do not embrace the term due to it being a perceived insult, and thus preferring "Chinatown" as a source of pride. Ethnic Chinese have protect the bane by claiming to have settled the area first and Chinese businesses being more dominant in the area. Other Asian groups have accepted the term for the sake of political correctness. This local debate gained some attention and was covered in a story on Fox News.

A similar pan-Asian area, but not necessarily considered a "satellite Chinatown" per se, has proliferated in a form of a shopping center in the Seattle suburb of Kent. The name of the shopping center is Great Wall Mall. [2]

The historic Chinatown in the capital of Olympia disappeared by the 1940s. Three Chinatowns existed in Olympia after several relocations and the third Chinatown was at Water Street and 5th Avenue.

Washington, D.C.

The old and shrinking Chinatown of Washington, D.C. is on H Street, several blocks east of the White House. The new suburban Chinatown is located about 20 miles to the north in Rockville, Maryland, where there is a large ethnic Chinese—mainly Taiwanese—population.

External links to North American Chinatowns

Canada

CBC News - Indepth: Chinese Migrants - History of Chinese immigration in Canada
Chinatown Vancouver Online - British Columbia, Canada
Chinatown Saskatoon-Riverside
Raise the Hammer - a brief mention of Hamilton's Chinatown
Sino-Vietnamese: Chinese sub-ethnic relations in Toronto's Chinatown West District - Academic paper about the Chinese Vietnamese in Toronto's Chinatown (PDF file).
Lists of Chinatown bus lines available in United States
Historic Chinatown desperately seeking revival about Toronto
http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/urb_demo/q-chinois/chinatown1.htm L'Urbanisme À MontrÉal - Chinatown Development Plan official Web site

United States

http://www.sanfranciscochinatown.com/ San Francisco Chinatown Largest Chinatown in North America
Chinese Cultural Center - A Chinatown-themed shopping center located in Phoenix, Arizona
Deadwood, South Dakota excavations - Remains of an old Chinatown
Homepage for Chinatown, Los Angeles, USA
Las Vegas Chinatown Plaza
Article: Asian-themed centers quickly dotting the desert in Las Vegas - Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Library of Congress: The Chinese in California, 1850-1925
The Chinese Beverly Hills - Asian Week article on the first Chinese American suburban community of Monterey Park, California, USA (Greater Los Angeles area).
When Newark Had A Chinatown - A project researching the hidden history of a former Chinatown of a large American city, Newark, New Jersey
Constructing New York's Chinatown: The Urban Development of a Neighbourhood
Where the action is - Los Angeles Times article on the suburban Chinese business district of San Gabriel, California (Greater Los Angeles area).
Urban Legends and Folklore: SARS Infects Restaurant Workers in Asian Neighborhoods - Lists Chinatown SARS hoaxes that were distributed online.
The Chinese in Plumas County (California) - Several examples of early rural Chinatowns in Northern California.
Lists of Chinatown bus lines available in United States
http://www.chinatownhi.com Honolulu's Chinatown
http://www.chicago-chinatown.com Chicago Chinatown
http://www.oaklandchinatownstreetfest.com Oakland Chinatown StreetFest