# Chinatowns



## GENIUS LOCI (Nov 18, 2004)

About the fast growing Chinese population and bussiness in Milan, recently, just one km apart or so from Paolo Sarpi area, a Chinese hotel opened.
Close to Garibaldi station, in the building of the former Chinese consulate, it's the first hotel of that kind in Milan as far as I know. 

Pics I took in October



GENIUS LOCI said:


> Shangai?





GENIUS LOCI said:


> Comunque dev'essere sicuramente una città cinese: con tutti quei grattacieli in costruzione sullo sfondo....


http://www.hotelhuaxia.com/home.do?lang=en_UK


----------



## Taller Better (Aug 27, 2005)

GENIUS LOCI said:


> Things changed the area was totally renewed, via Paolo Sarpi became pedestrian and even the quality of Chinese stores are improving (I have to add that nowadays Chinese own a large part of shops and stores in the whole city. And just part of 'em are ethnical Chinese stores)
> 
> Here via Paolo Sarpi (Milan Chinatown main street) in March just few days after its renewal had been over
> 
> ...



Interesting comments, thanks!! How is the street at night-time? I hope it has not been made too quiet. Sometimes a chaotic, lively street can die when they turn it into a pedestrian thoroughfare, and other times it is successful.


----------



## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

any pics of Paris Chinese New Year? Ive heard it's the biggest outside Asia (crowds 400,000 to 1 million). Anyone verify this?


----------



## Skybean (Jun 16, 2004)

the spliff fairy said:


> so vibrant, Toronto's Chinatown looks so much more colourful than London's, which is really just a few streets of restaurants catering to tourists. It really makes a difference if the community actually resides there imo.


There are very few Chinese living in the downtown Chinatown compared to the suburban areas of Toronto which have much newer and cleaner Chinese malls. More and more of the people in Toronto's downtown Chinatown are actually Vietnamese and Filipinos. The younger generation of Chinese in Toronto virtually never go to the downtown Chinatown. It's sad, however, it just hasn't kept up to date with the times.

However, I have to say that even the downtown Toronto Chinatown is way way better than the London one - I don't really understand how it can be so small.

Here are some photos of planned expansions of current Chinese malls in Toronto's suburbs:








'


----------



## Taller Better (Aug 27, 2005)

Skybean said:


> There are very few Chinese living in the downtown Chinatown compared to the suburban areas of Toronto which have much newer and cleaner Chinese malls.


The numbers of residents may be fewer than in the 'burbs, but don't underestimate the number who live in the big neighbourhoods around the old Chinatown, like around Kensington:























































or around the area of Baldwin, etc... Lots of these old Victorian houses have front gardens meticulously groomed to grow veggies, and herbs. This is nothing like Chinatowns where people drive in from the burbs, open their shop, and drive out at night, leaving an abandoned neighbourhood behind them... even though many have moved out to the 'burbs, it is still a vital community where people live, work and play. No argument about the suburban areas being cleaner, because they certainly are... and there is a real pleasure in shopping in a big, clean supermarket like T&T that is in every way the same as a normal supermarket, but all Asian goods. But, having said all that, I still like rummaging through bins on Spadina, searching for bargains, and checking out the characters! Never a dull moment in Chinatown...


----------



## GENIUS LOCI (Nov 18, 2004)

Skybean said:


> However, I have to say that even the downtown Toronto Chinatown is way way better than the London one - I don't really understand how it can be so small.


I didn't visit Chinatown in Toronto, but went in Montreal's one which I found very very small; then Manhattan's chinatown too is not that big

Chinatowns size is not directely related to Chinese population of the city nowadays, who normally don't live prevalently in chinatowns


----------



## GENIUS LOCI (Nov 18, 2004)

Taller said:


> Interesting comments, thanks!! How is the street at night-time? I hope it has not been made too quiet. Sometimes a chaotic, lively street can die when they turn it into a pedestrian thoroughfare, and other times it is successful.


Actually it has never been busy at night as prevalently it is a shopping area.

Milan Chinatown historically is the place where at the beginning of XX century first Chinese immigrants took place.
But for many decades it was not a 'typical' chinatown: Chinese shops and Italian ones were melt together; and via Paolo Sarpi itself was prevalently Italian (even today there are not only Chinese stores, while there are plenty in secondarian streets close to it as to buy stores there is less expensive) a shopping street with many clothes stores.

Since Chinese immigrants drammatically increased in last decades things changed. Many Chinese busyness began to concentrate in that area and prevalently opened clothes stores as well, unfortunately mostly of poor quality.
Now things are changing again they're opening shops of better quality... but clothes shops are predominant so there is not a busy nightlife or even large amount of Chinese markets as you showed in Toronto's chinatown.

You can find more of that stuff for istance in another zone which had a quick increasing of Chinese shops lately, in the first part of via Padova close to Piazzale Loreto


----------



## Minato ku (Aug 9, 2005)

the spliff fairy said:


> any pics of Paris Chinese New Year? Ive heard it's the biggest outside Asia (crowds 400,000 to 1 million). Anyone verify this?


Even if the chinese new year is big, i don't think that it is the biggest outside Asia. There are several parades, two big for the big chinatowns.
I have pics but I couldn't post it because I am in vacation.


----------



## diablo234 (Aug 18, 2008)

Some of the different "Chinatowns" found in New York (yes, there is more than one).

*Chinatown (Manhattan):*




































*Sunset Park (Brooklyn):*



























*Flushing (Queens):*


----------



## sdblackshade (Feb 13, 2008)

China Town, Singapore










from http://travelbyyourside.blogspot.com by me



Petaling Street Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia










from http://travelbyyourside.blogspot.com by me


----------



## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

*Chinatown Buenos Aires - Argentina*




Chinatown Buenos Aires is a largely commercial section about five blocks long in the barrio of Belgrano, Buenos Aires. The Asian community living in Belgrano is less than 0.5% of the ward's total. Despite the designation of this Belgrano enclave as a Chinese ethnic enclave, the area is populated by different Asian communities, with a predominance of Taiwanese people and, to a lesser extent, Japanese and Thais. This neighbourhood contains several Chinese restaurants, grocery stores, and a Buddhist temple. It is the core centre of the Chinese community in Argentina. The neighbourhood began to develop in the 1980s when newly arrived Taiwanese and mainland Chinese immigrants settled in this area. The neighbourhood is also known for its celebration of the Chinese New Year. On January 22 the streets of South Belgrano dress up in bright red and golden yellow, as dragon-like puppets and chariots run through the streets undulating and waving to the rhythm of traditional Chinese music. A proposal for the creation of Chinatown as an official barrio of Buenos Aires was promoted by a group of Asian businessmen for commercial purposes in 2006. The requested designation was without success, however, because "Chinatown" didn't reflect the real population structure of Belgrano, which is populated overwhelmingly by people who are not Asian in origin but European.


----------



## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)




----------



## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)




----------



## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

^^


On HD


----------



## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

I loved the Chinatown in Vancouver. It seemed older than Toronto's downtown Chinatown. My Chinese-Canadian friend in Vancouver mentioned the same thing. I suppose Toronto's would have looked much like Vancouver's if it hadn't been razed in the 1960s to make way for new City Hall.

Due to that, it moved west to Spadina but likely lost a little something in the process.


----------



## 009 (Nov 28, 2007)

*Victoria's* Chinatown is nice



Victoria Chinatown by Gary Peng, on Flickr



Cute alley - Victoria Chinatown by Canada is a Big Place, on Flickr



Victoria Chinatown Fantan Ally by Philip Chu, on Flickr


----------



## 009 (Nov 28, 2007)

Chinatown *Singapore*



Chinatown, Singapore by Oscar Tarneberg, on Flickr



Chinatown, Singapore by Fabio Achilli, on Flickr



Chinatown, Singapore by architecturel, on Flickr



Chinatown Singapore by Wang Kun, on Flickr



Chinatown, Singapore by dcxj, on Flickr



Chinatown, Singapore by Mike Aeria, on Flickr


----------



## heymikey1981 (May 25, 2016)

009 said:


> Chinatown *Singapore*


Isn't Singapore one big Chinatown?


----------



## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

Singaporeans are about 75% Chinese speakers, but as a country they're Singaporeans not Chinese (the diaspora from China to Malaysia/ Singapore started 400 years ago) whose official language, and often the first is English. The Chinatown they have there is the historic site of the 200 year old community that built the community there, not far from Little India - both communities inserted on a Malay backdrop.

Technically the Malay and Indian populations are just as old or older than the Chinese in the settling of the island and the creation of the city and country. Thus even though the Chinese descendants have grown so large, they're technically just another minority in the myriad backgrounds of the nation.

Calling SG one big Chinatown would be akin to calling NYC one big Britaintown.


----------



## DowntownKidz (Feb 26, 2015)

^^

Just to add that in the past 10 years, there has been a new pulse to the Chinatown with a new wave of mainland Chinese people setting up shops and businesses in the Chinatown. You now see more cuisine from other parts of China that cater largely to the PRC crowd. Sichuan is hugely popular now.

In a way it is interesting to see how the original Chinatown in the 19th century is re-adapting to the 21st century, and not just as a tourist trap but really as a living fabric for people living in the city.


----------

