1.
Singapore
Singapore’s Chinatown, once home to the first
Chinese settlers in what’s now a heavily Westernized city-state, is one of its
few distinctly Asian neighborhoods. The enclave was home to the area’s earliest
Chinese settlers. Several of its institutions, such as the Heritage Centre, Food
Street, and Night Market, preserve the culture of its original inhabitants,
while some areas of the district are designated national heritage sites. Many
historic buildings remain as relics of the past, as well as to complement the
otherwise modern landscape. 09 more after the break...
2.
Melbourne
Melbourne boasts the oldest Chinatown in the
world, established during Victoria’s Gold Rush in 1854. Catch the world’s
longest Chinese dragon– the Millennium Dai Loong Dragon tops 100 meters — in
action as it is brought to life by 200 people during the Chinese New Year
parade.
3. Kuala Lumpur
The capital of Malaysia was actually founded by
Chinese tin prospectors in the 1850s, who played a pivotal role in the city’s
transformation from a jungle settlement to a center for the tin mining industry.
The Chinese remain the city’s dominant ethnic group and control a large
proportion of the country’s commerce. Chinatown, known locally as Petaling
Street or Jalan Petaling, is famous for its food stalls and night market, where
shoppers can load up on fresh produce and counterfeit DVDs, watches and purses
(don’t forget to haggle).
4. Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia
Arriving in Georgetown, Penang, off the west
coast of Malaysia after a long journey from Thailand, you may almost think that
you accidentally traveled all the way to China. The city’s Chinatown is one of
the largest and best preserved in the world, with everyday sights and sounds
reminiscent of a small city in China. Most residents are descended from Chinese
immigrants who arrived in Penang during the colonial era and made their fortunes
as traders and shopkeepers. Many of their original shops are still intact
today.
5. Toronto
In the most ethnically diverse city in the
world, residents have their pick of seven Chinatowns. The city’s main Chinatown
was formed in the late 1960s, when many businesses in the original Chinatown
were forced to move. Since the 1980s, the Greater Toronto Area’s Chinese
community has migrated to the suburbs of Scarborough, Mississauga, Richmond
Hill, Markham, and North York, where shopping centers are reminiscent of Hong
Kong’s malls and street stalls.
6. New York
New York’s first Chinese residents began
arriving in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the late 19th century to escape
discriminatory measures on the West Coast. In the 1980s, the neighborhood
eclipsed San Francisco’s as the largest Chinatown outside Asia. But don’t
overlook the city’s other Chinese enclaves – in Elmhurst and Flushing in Queens,
and along Avenue U and 8th Avenue in Brooklyn. In fact, Flushing’s Chinatown has
now surpassed Manhattan’s in size.
7. Vancouver
There’s a reason this city has been nicknamed
“Hongcouver.” In the years leading up to Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to China,
waves of wealthy immigrants flooded the city. The mayor, Sam Sullivan, even
speaks Cantonese. Vancouver’s Chinatown dates back to the early 20th century,
although recent arrivals have headed for the suburb of Richmond, where many of
the Chinese restaurants are considered the best outside of Hong Kong.
8. San Francisco
The city’s Chinese New Year parade, an annual
event since the 1860s, is the largest Asian cultural celebration outside of
Asia. Chinatown may seem like a tacky tourist trap, but one cannot ignore the
history and significance of one of the world’s best-known Chinese quarters, once
the stomping grounds of Sun Yat-Sen and Amy Tan. The original enclave, built in
the 1850s by settlers who had arrived during the gold rush and railroad days,
would be the world’s oldest had it not been destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.
Since the 1960s, much of the city’s Chinese community has moved into the Sunset
and Richmond districts, while newer immigrants often settle in the suburbs
around the Bay Area.
9. Yokohama, Japan
Yokohama Chinatown is the largest throughout
Asia, in developing the environment when the Port of Yokohama was opened to
foreign trade in 1859 because many of the Chinese traders and settled here. The
roads and streets of Chinatown is marked by nine flashy colors, but the gate was
found at all.
10. Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok Chinatown is famous just as Yaowarat or
Sampeng, after the strolling nearby, Bangkok’s Chinatown is as old as the city
itself. In the late 1700s, as a young Bangkok city expanded, Chinese merchants
were asked to move. They settled here near the river where they have since that
time will be quick to this point. The tourists will be fast to show the “Traimit
Wat temple”, which the largest houses gold Buddha, weighing in more than five
tons. Do not miss the great shopping opportunities, especially the items on
display in the old Chinese pharmacy.
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