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Houston is dominated way too heavily by the Vietnamese for a Chinatown to develop like these cities. Add to that the hyperdependence on car travel, it will never happen.
Houston's Asiatown is basically a enormous cluster of strip malls.
Houston's is much like the Asian area in Atlanta, called the International Village. Back in the 80s Atlanta's Buford Highway corridor became unpopular and was semi-abandoned , leaving an ignored mall, empty strip malls and a large amount of inexpensive property that attracted immigrants and other new arrivals to the city. Over the next 20 years it became a magnet for all ethnic groups and today is the center of asian, indian, and latin cultures. It may not be just like the other Chinatowns in lots of ways, but I think Atlanta is used to developing a little differently than most.
Examples of Atlanta's International Village area
DSC03268 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/avriette/27383868/ - broken link)
DSC03269 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/avriette/27383955/ - broken link)
100_2708 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/john-p/1751125149/ - broken link)
100_2710 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/john-p/1751125469/ - broken link)
I voted for SF, but NYC really has 3 Chinatowns. The one in Mahattan, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and the one that Lam, posted pictures on Flushing, NY ( Queens ) my hometown. The one in Queens is actually the largest Chinatown in the East Coast ( population over 200,000 with over 50% Asian ) and living here on 41 st Ave, if you were to walk down Main St., towards Roosevelt Ave., it really feels like an off shoot of Hong Kong. The hustle and bustle in the street, and the way the planes fly so low because the airport is one a few miles away. Go Flushing!
And how are we defining "best?" San Francisco's is older, New York's is larger. (Actually, New York now has two fairly distinct Chinatowns--the one everyone knows in Manhattan, and the much more recent offshoot colony spreading across the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn).
Have you ever even BEEN to Queens?
sorry, just gotta tease you for your Brooklyn-centricity... mentioning sunset Park before Flushing when talking about Chinatowns is like mentioning Forest Hills before Brighton Beach when talking about NYC Russians....
But yeah, it's true. NYC has 3 distinct "chinatowns" in 3 different boroughs that are geographically distinct from each other. Flushing is the largest by population but probably would be the least interesting to a tourist, but since Manhattan Chinatown is the city's tourist trap Flushing caters almost exclusively to its ethnic population (and/or foodies or daring Queens natives, haha).
sorry, just gotta tease you for your Brooklyn-centricity... mentioning sunset Park before Flushing when talking about Chinatowns is like mentioning Forest Hills before Brighton Beach when talking about NYC Russians....
But yeah, it's true. NYC has 3 distinct "chinatowns" in 3 different boroughs that are geographically distinct from each other. Flushing is the largest by population but probably would be the least interesting to a tourist, but since Manhattan Chinatown is the city's tourist trap Flushing caters almost exclusively to its ethnic population (and/or foodies or daring Queens natives, haha).
That's me. Anyone wanna go grab a Sichuan hot pot?
I picked NYC's... The largest concentration of Chinese people outside of China. New York has more than one Chinatown. All of them are real. There are Chinese people playing Chinese games on the street, Chinese newspapers, etc.
Image from - www.angryasianman.com
Photo taken by MarkDM of www.flickr.com (broken link)
San Fran, and I'm Chinese. LA shouldn't really be on here IMO, and if it is you might as well add other major Chinese enclaves like those of Houston, Chicago, and Boston... Maybe Washington DC.
San Fran, and I'm Chinese. LA shouldn't really be on here IMO, and if it is you might as well add other major Chinese enclaves like those of Houston, Chicago, and Boston... Maybe Washington DC.
The major China Towns in America are New York, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.
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