Portland chinatown (to buy, place to live, restaurants)

[meltinjohn]

Is it my imagination or is Portlands chinatown a joke or simply a shell of other cities chinatowns? I been to 3 places in chinatown and neither one had fried rice with big pieces of pork cooked in it like you should get or even seafood claws or more real seafood in the food. Food was good that I had but just not "that good" to the point it should even be called chinatown. NTM, I dont see asians everywhere around there like you should. Maybe years and years ago chinatown in Portland was happening but I dunno, seems the food tastes like it does in places where the chinese food is just good at best.

[jojo4]

Ha! Yes, it's a joke.
Go out to 82nd and Powell/division to get good Chinese food.
Asians don't want to live in Oldtown, who does?

[oldtintype]

Chinatown used to be a Chinese area. Now it's nothing but a historical section of town. Most of the businesses moved out towards the SE 82nd and Division area where the majority of the Asian population now lives/shops.

[Arf Arf]

Yeah, BOTH blocks = Chinatown. Should be ChinaSquare.

[InkedParrot]

Yeah, its dead.

[EnricoV]

I think the influx of missions and other homeless services in Old Town drove out what vestiges remained of Chinatown years ago. And who can blame them.

[meltinjohn]

Originally Posted by oldtintype

Chinatown used to be a Chinese area. Now it's nothing but a historical section of town. Most of the businesses moved out towards the SE 82nd and Division area where the majority of the Asian population now lives/shops.

So southeast is where all the good chinese is now huh?
I know theres more asians there these days. Its so hard to make it out that way with the way the busses go tho.

[nwroots]

Well, there are still a few chinese left in Portland's chinatown, and some authentic dim sum. But honestly Portland's chinatown has more African americans than Chinese. Sadly, many of the people that hang or stay there are transients and are either there to buy or sell drugs. Chinatown in Portland is very unique, but rough and a little gritty. I tripped out when I went to the Chinese gardens there (beautiful!) and saw only a handfull of Chinese people(mostly white folks running it, lol). As stated above, Portland's REAL Chinatown is in SE Portland.

[JoJo1212]

Hi, my name is synthia, i am thinking about relocating to Portland. could anyone give me some ideas where i should look for a safe place to live. I would like to know where can you buy asian foods and where are the Chinese live? Thank all for any information. it will help my decision.

[Bluesmama]

Originally Posted by meltinjohn

Is it my imagination or is Portlands chinatown a joke or simply a shell of other cities chinatowns? I been to 3 places in chinatown and neither one had fried rice with big pieces of pork cooked in it like you should get or even seafood claws or more real seafood in the food. Food was good that I had but just not "that good" to the point it should even be called chinatown. NTM, I dont see asians everywhere around there like you should. Maybe years and years ago chinatown in Portland was happening but I dunno, seems the food tastes like it does in places where the chinese food is just good at best.

It was never really much of a Chinatown in the 32 years I've been here. And in recent years several restaurants have closed. There was a big effort to encourage Asians to move into the area and revitalize "Chinatown", but it failed miserably, I assume for financial reasons.

It's true about SE 82nd. It's not the historical Chinese district but it's the "new Chinatown".

By the way, hello meltinjohn, good to "see" you again. Did you finally get to move to Portland?