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.
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.
Source :- http://worldtoptenthings.blogspot.in/2011/09/worlds-top-10-most-colorful-chinatowns.html
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