Every major city or town has a Chinatown

[accatt2204]

Does a little vietnam count?

[Delta]

Does a little vietnam count?

Hrmmmm, totally seperate cultures (but China has so many cultures in itself). I guess it would be like asking does a cluster of French restaurants count as Little Italy.

However, Vietnamese restaurants can be found in Chinatowns. There are a couple of Japanese or Korean restuarants in Sydney's main Chinatown.

[sleepy]

Actually Delta, in the United States there are loads of large cities without a Chinatown. As far as I know, none of the following cities have a Chinatown for example:

Denver

Minneapolis

Miami

Buffalo

Detroit

Dallas

Phoenix

Atlanta.......

Nearly every city in Canada has a Chinatown though, even Victoria (metro population 300,000).

St. Paul has an extensive area of Chinese businesses along the Snelling-University Avenue area. And the city of St. Paul is about 10% Asian, not all Chinese though.

[TexasTiny]

Actually Delta, in the United States there are loads of large cities without a Chinatown. As far as I know, none of the following cities have a Chinatown for example:

Denver

Minneapolis

Miami

Buffalo

Detroit

Dallas

Phoenix

Atlanta.......

Nearly every city in Canada has a Chinatown though, even Victoria (metro population 300,000).

Never thought about that. We don't have one in DFW. I think Houston has one.

Atlanta is a mostly black city.

[urbanguy]

Delta, its very common to see Vietnamese, Cambodian, etc restaurants in Chinatowns as there are many ethnic Chinese that come from places like Vietnam, Cambodia, etc and so they open up restaurants of those cuisines they even have organizations here for ethnic Chinese from various Southeast Asian countries. One of my best buddies here is a Chinese guy that was born and raised in Vietnam he also speaks the language fluently as well as Teo Chew, Cantonese, & Mandarin.

[G W North]

I actually saw a stat on another forum (not sure if it's correct), that the entire United States has fewer than 3 million Chinese. That is probably much of the reason why there are so many cities down there without Chinatowns. That is less than 1% of the population. I think Canada has about 1 million Chinese, more than 3% of the population. I'm sure Australia is at least a few percent Chinese as well.

[urbanguy]

^A huge reason is there historical settlement patterns the majority live on the westcoast with the exception of major cities like NYC which has a huge Chinese population. However, the newer migrants are spreading out more, so only time will tell but i don't think we will be seeing many Chinatowns forming because these are different times and the newer migrants seem to spread out more.

[Allan]

Detroit's Asian population is currently very small, but it is growing at an exponential rate right now. I suspect that the same thing is happening in many other cities with small Asian populations right now. So I would not be surprised to see some new Chinatowns popping up.

[G W North]

If the Chinese population of a city is growing strong, you should see new Chinese commercial district. If the city is urban in nature, it should get a downtown Chinatown, if the city is suburban in nature, you might see more Chinese malls instead.

[urbanguy]

Its weird seeing or hearing about Asian Malls I imagine that will be the new Chinatowns of the future of suburbanized sprawly America

[G W North]

Don't they have Asian Malls in Hawaii? We have loads of them in Canada. Both strip malls (plazas) and real indoor malls. Toronto's Chinatown alone has 2 indoor malls (that I can think of), plus I know of one large indoor mall in the suburbs, and loads of Asian strip malls in the suburbs. With over 400,000 Chinese in the metro area, there's bound to be Chinese malls.

Markham's Pacific Mall is the largest indoor Chinese mall in North America with 400 stores: http://www.pacificmalltoronto.com/en/

[urbanguy]

We have market places but they are in Chinatown there are no suburban asian malls in Hawaii they are all mixed. Hawaii doesn't really have any enclaves but you can find fairly high concentrations of ethnic businesses etc in certain area's known for historical settlements of the older established immigrant groups like my area is nicknamed Koreatown/Little Seoul or Koreamoku by residents that live in this area or frequent it...there was a resolution to make it official but many people in the hood did not want that label because as all Hawaii hoods go... its mixed as well as an area called Moiliili which was supposed to be Japantown and it was stopped for the same reason and other areas were gonna be established as the Filipinotown, Hawaiiantown, Samoatown, Little Puerto Rico etc as far as i know all were shot down, I guess no one likes to labelled here hehe

[monsoon]

[Cotuit]

Chinatowns, and all immigrant enclaves were originally settled in slum areas of cities. The only areas where immigrants could afford to be, some like Boston's Little Italy, the North End, have gone on to become highly sought after urban neighbourhoods. Most cities have downtown real estate prices that prohibit an immigrant node from forming.

In Boston you see a lot of Brazilian and Southeast Asian markets and stores in the Allston section of the city because of the relatively lower real estate prices. In Providence we have large latino populations in the city's Elmwood section for the same reason. I think the downtown ethnic enclave is a thing of the past. Any future ethnic enclaves will be in outlying neighbourhoods and suburbs.

[G W North]

Downtown Chinatowns aren't necessarily where a lot of Chinese people live (though they usually do), but where you can find hundreds of Chinese stores, restaurants, and other businesses closely packed together. There's no real reason these can't be supported unless that city doesn't support downtown retail/restaurants at all. They can generally afford the same rents as non-Chinese retailers.

On a side note, one of downtown Toronto's Chinese malls had it's entire food court closed down for health violations a few months ago (it has since re-opened). The Chinese restaurants in Chinatowns aren't always the most sanitary.

Toronto's 2 downtown Chinatowns have (I'm guessing) between 800-1000 shops and restaurants between the two of them. I took a bunch of pictures of them a couple years ago. The Chinatown pictures cover about the first 11 pages, while the last 2 or 3 are Kensington Market.

[leets]

A lot of those places wouldn't make sense to have a Chinatown. I mean, Buffalo? C'mon. And Miami is obviously more spanish/caribbean inspired.

Edit: Oh yeah and Victoria is right across the... bay? from Vancouver, which, as I'm sure you know, has the highest Asian population outside Asia.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Buffalo sort of has a mini China Town but it is across the river in Fort Erie. There is a strip of about 10 Chineese restaurants. It is where Buffalo people go when they want good Chinese food. ( not a rael china Town though.

[ironchapman]

Chamblee, a nearby suburb of Atlanta, is known locally as "Chambodia".

I think the city has a large Vietnamese population, though.

[paperback]

Boston's Chinatown also has Japanese, Vietnamese, and other south asian places. Also, the part of Dorchester that I live in has a quite a few Vietnamese people and businesses.

random googling of Boston's Chinatown

can't find many great pictures :-\

maybe sometime i'll head down there myself and snap some.

[PghUSA]

Pittsburgh, yeah the German-Irish-Scotch-Russian-Polish Pittsburgh believe it or not has a small but vibrant Chinatown, well vibrant up until recently when they have more or less mixed in with the metro population or moved out the burbs (something every ethnic neighborhood is facing more and more of).

From a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Article:

It was one of the smallest Chinatowns in the United States, but it was a busy one. In the early 1900s, Second and Third avenues, Downtown, between Ross and Grant streets, had Chinese gift and grocery shops, restaurants, even a little park where the Chinese families who lived above their stores gathered on warm evenings.

It was the home of two rival Chinese fraternal societies -- the On Leong Labor and Merchants Association and the Hip Sing Association. It had a so-called "mayor" and "tong" wars.

Chinese from surrounding towns would come by bus, train or trolley on Sunday afternoons to socialize, play mah jong and drink tea . . .

[DetroitBazaar]

There's still a sign saying "Welcome to Chinatown" in Detroit. One of the only businesses that survived the freeway destruction was Chungs but I believe that is closed now. Freeways in Detroit have DESTROYED many historic neighborhoods. We do have a few distinct "Middle Eastern towns" that resemble some of the more "official" chinatowns.

Will, DetroitBazaar

[marcelo]

S

[G W North]

Toronto has a large Asian population. The 2001 census showed Metro Toronto with 4,647,960 people, including 409,535 Chinese, 473,810 South Asians, 133,675 Filipinos, 53,565 Southeast Asians, 52,980 West Asians, 42,620 Koreans, and 17,420 Japanese.

[DetroitBazaar]

Toronto has a large Asian population. The 2001 census showed Metro Toronto with 4,647,960 people, including 409,535 Chinese, 473,810 South Asians, 133,675 Filipinos, 53,565 Southeast Asians,  52,980 West Asians, 42,620 Koreans, and 17,420 Japanese.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd take Toronto's Chinatown along with SF's anyday

[Cap'n Prowler]

Columbus, Ohio has no Chinatown, but has a wonderful German Village, where almost everything is built in redbrick, including many streets and sidewalks. Many bars there (part of it is known as the brewery district), as well as old churches and small shops. Shmidt's Sausage Haus und Resturant is probably my favorite place in the world to eat. This is one of the few things I can actually say Columbus is good for.

[urbanplanetuser]

Here's DC's Chinatown; Pretty Small but a great place to be w/ some AMAZING restaurants. It has really come up in the past few years and is a bustling center of activity now.

The chinatown arch:

A parade:

The "chineese" subway: