Belvedere is a suburb of

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

, the capital city and the largest metropolitan area of

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. Though historically home to a notable Indian population since 2012 Belvedere has become known for its growing Chinese population, due to the construction of Longcheng Plaza. The area is found to the west of the central Harare by the suburbs of Ridgeview, Monovale and Warren Park. It is noted for a new Chinatown that exists around the Longcheng area. This new Chinatown is now considered as the main Chinatown in Harare, replacing a nascent area in the CBD.

Location

Belvedere lies to the west of Harare's central business district and connects the center of the city to the more western suburbs of Warren Park and Mbare, where the National Sports Stadium is located. The travel distance from downtown Harare to Belvedere is approximately by road. The coordinates of Belvedere, Harare are:17 49 39S, 31 00 43E (Latitude:-17.8275; Longitude:31.0120).

Overview

There is a sizeable Asian community of Indian origin in the area. There are two colleges, Harare Institute of Technology and Belvedere Teachers' College.

FBC Bank FBC Bank, whose full name is FBC Bank Limited, is a commercial bank in Zimbabwe. It is licensed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the central bank and national banking regulator. Location The main branch and headquarters of the bank are located ...

, one of Zimbabwe's 17 licensed commercial banks, has a branch in Belvedere. Up until approximately 2010, Belvedere was a predominantly an Indian and

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

n neighbourhood. However, massive Chinese investment focused on Longcheng Plaza has led to an influx of new residents, drastically changing the character and demographics of the area.

Longcheng Plaza

Longcheng Plaza (literally Dragon City plaza) is a Chinese-built, outdoor

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

, that opened to the public December 2013. The plaza is home to a casino, supermarket and numerous shops offering a wide range of products and services. Some of the businesses at the mall include fashion, health & beauty, automotives, hardware & home, pharmacies, gift stores, jewelers & accessories, photography & videography, bakeries, electronics, musical instruments and nightclubs and bars. The mall was designed according to Chinese architectural styles - a first in Zimbabwe, revealing growing ties between Zimbabwe and China. The construction of the plaza has essentially made Belvedere the city's new

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

- a hub for Chinese businesses within the city. The mall's anchor tenant is Ivato supermarket, hardware and furniture world. The supermarket offers a wide range on groceries, kitchen utensils, stationary and many other various products. Across the supermarket lies furniture and hardware stores offering stores, as well as a nightclub and casino. Construction of Longcheng Plaza, though successful has proved highly controversial due to the village's construction being out of step with local architectural styles and its construction on what had been an important

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

. Additionally, many inhabitants of the new Chinatown in Belvedere are first generation Chinese immigrants from

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

. The Chinatown has a number of

paifang A ''paifang'', also known as a ''pailou'', is a traditional style of Chinese architecture, often used in arch or gateway structures. Etymology The word ''paifang'' ( zh, c=牌坊, p=páifāng) was originally a collective term for the top two le ...

(arches) that dot the shopping centre and have become popular tourist attractions.

References

External links

Location of Belvedere Teacher's College At Google Maps
{{Suburbs of Harare Suburbs of Harare Harare Chinatowns in Africa