Chinatown

Introduction

Chinatown is a residential and commercial area which is found in various cities all over the world, but this time, I'm going to tell you about Chinatown in Washington D. C.

In this case, Chinatown is a small area which makes up part of Washington D. C. going from H street to I street and from 5th street to 8th street. Although, you should know that Chinatown used to be located in another zone in the American capital, but for some reason, they had to move it to its current zone.

The area is small in size and quantity of Chinese residents, especially in comparison to other Chinese neighbourhoods, like the ones found in San Francisco or Manhattan. In the district, there isn't a very high percentage of Chinese people in comparison to the total amount of residents in the area.

The Chinese gate

The most characteristic element of Chinatown in Washington D. C. is the Chinese gate or the Arch of Friendship (they call it by both names). It's the most Chinese thing that you'll see in this area and also my favourite part. It's located on H street by 7th street.

It was designed by Alfred H. Lin, a guy who immigrated here from Taiwan (although if you asked my Taiwanese friend, she would tell you that Taiwan doesn't belong to China, so this gate would be Taiwanese and not Chinese). It was inaugurated in 1986 and from then it has been one of the most visited and photographed things in the area, because of its great colourings and beauty, it has also been looked after very well by the residents of the area and other lovers of the Chinese culture.

Church

Chinatown has a church - The Chinese Community Church. It's located on I street by 500th street in the North-Western area.

I've only seen the church from the outside. It's a small to medium church, red in colour and it has a white tower in the central part. It doesn't have many details, nor is it a jewel of architecture, but I like it. It reflects China a little bit to me, because of the red colour, since almost everything associated with China is red, but it doesn't have the same shape as a Chinese temple, it's more similar to traditional churches.

Chinese New Year

The most famous party or celebration in the area is Chinese New Year, which is celebrated on a different date each year because it has to be in line with the moon and astrological things which I don't personally understand. This year, it was celebrated during the third week of February, and it's the year of the goat, so in Chinatown, everything was decorated with things related to this animal, and not only in Chinatown, but also in some of the shopping areas and Asian restaurants which aren't in Chinatown.

The day that I went to eat in one of the restaurants in the area, a New Year parade had taken place, which was lucky, because there was a lot of atmosphere in the area (despite the streets being snowy and cold) and a bigger decoration which made this area even more special than usual.

The parade went by the street where the Chinese gate is so I went under the same gate, the is the best one that I have in my head from this area of Washington. The parade, as you can imagine, consisted of people in traditional outfits, dragons, goats, Chinese music, etc. , but it was nothing extraordinary, so we stayed for a bit and then left.

There was also a stage, just opposite the Chinese arch, where I suppose they were putting on performances, but I couldn't see anything.

Shopping area

Chinatown has some 20 Asian food restaurants with different types of cooking and different locals and decorations. I had only been in one which I told you about in my last post.

These Chinese restaurants are mixed together with other American shops and Irish pubs in the area, amongst other things.

The non-Chinese shops which stand out the most in the area are:

• Radio Shack: an electronic shop which was medium in size and is quite popular in Washington D. C.
• Bed, Bath and Beyond: a huge shop full of bed accessories, bathroom accessories and other things for the house, but it also had a pharmacy, a health section and and electronics section, as well as a lot of other things.
• Starbucks: just on one of the corners which lead to the Chinese gate, it's an American coffee shop chain which is popular worldwide.
• Hooters: an American food restaurant, famous place for going out in movies and for the beautiful waitresses.
• Matchbox: A pizzeria which I told you about in another post which is really good quality.

Chinatown also has a cinema, Regal Cinema, which is a few meters from the Chinatown arch, and I had the pleasure of spending some time there some weeks ago. It's very big, but the ticket prices are quite expensive; 13$ per ticket to see a film and a menu of popcorn and drinks to share is 20$, so I won't be going there much.

Opinion and experience

In my opinion, it's an area that disappointed me a little bit, above all because I had already seen the Chinatown in London and in New York; it's quite small and less Chinese than the other two Chinatowns. It's also true that I'm not the most appropriate person to judge these types of area because I'm not really a fan of Asian restaurants nor of the Chinese culture.

Even so, it's worth a visit to the arch or the Chinese gateway since it's really pretty, big and original and I think that if it wasn't for this element of Chinatown, the area would be quite poor. I also like the area for the amount of shops and the cinema that it has, so I am sure I will return to Chinatown on multiple occasions.

How to get to Chinatown

To get to Chinatown, there are various ways such as walking from the National Mall or other points in the city, or by bus and the most convenient form, by metro. To get there by metro, the closest stop is "Gallery Place-Chinatown" and the line that goes there is the red line. However, more often than not, it's more convenient to go to the stop "Metro Station" which is found around a 5 minute walk away from Chinatown and has the largest number of metro lines travelling through it in case you don't want to have to change lines (it consists of 2 orange lines, a silver line, and a blue and red line).