Chinatown, Ottawa
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Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
's
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 ...
is located along
Somerset Street Somerset Street may refer to: *Somerset Street (New Brunswick) *Somerset Street (Ottawa) {{Disambiguation, geo ...
west of
downtown Ottawa Downtown Ottawa is the central area of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is sometimes referred to as the Central Business District and contains Ottawa's financial district. It is bordered by the Ottawa River to the north, the Rideau Canal to the east, ...
. It runs from Bay Street in the east to Preston Street in the west (according to the Chinatown BIA). Signs for Chinatown continue along Somerset until
Preston Street Preston Street may refer to: *Preston Street (Ottawa) *Preston Street (Baltimore) *A section of Kentucky Route 61 Kentucky Route 61 (KY 61) is a long Kentucky State Highway extending north from the Tennessee state line in Cumberland County to ...
, and Chinese/Asian restaurants can be found even farther west. The BIA was designated in 1989 and was named Somerset Heights until it was renamed Chinatown in 2005. While officially designated "Chinatown," the area is home to businesses from many Asian cultures, such as Vietnamese, Korean and Thai. Restaurants specializing in
Phở Phở or pho (, , ; ) is a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles (), herbs, and meat – usually beef (), and sometimes chicken (). Phở is a popular food in Vietnam where it is served in households, street-stalls, and ...
and
dim sum Dim sum () is a large range of small Chinese dishes that are traditionally enjoyed in restaurants for brunch. Most modern dim sum dishes are commonly associated with Cantonese cuisine, although dim sum dishes also exist in other Chinese cu ...
are quite common. The Ottawa Chinatown has on one hand an urban character as it is not a cluster of
strip mall A strip mall, strip center, strip plaza or simply plaza is a type of shopping mall, shopping center common in North America and Australia where the stores are arranged in a row, with a footpath in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a ...
s, but on the other hand, it is focused on one commercial street, surrounded exclusively by residential areas. A traditional
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 ...
archway has been built upon the entrance to the western section of Chinatown over Somerset Street, west of
Bronson Avenue Bronson Avenue ( Ottawa Road #79) is a major north-south arterial road in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It starts at the south end as a continuation of the Airport Parkway, which is an expressway to the Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. It c ...
. It was unveiled in the early Fall of 2010.


History

Although Chinese had been in Ottawa in the early part of the 20th century (first census reporting Chinese residents in 1911), the official existence of Chinatown began in 1931 on Albert Street from Kent Street to O'Connor Street. This first Chinatown began to decline beginning in the 1940s and ceased to exist on Albert Street by the 1970s, but the second and current Chinatown had begun to rise in the 1960s on Somerset Street West and finally displaced the old area by 1982.


See also

*
Little Italy, Ottawa Little Italy is a neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and the cultural centre of Ottawa's Italian community. Situated in Centretown West, it is bounded by Albert Street to the north, Carling Avenue to the south, O-Train Line 2 to the west, ...


References


External links


Chinatown Ottawa Business Improvement AssociationCity of Ottawa: Chinatown
{{authority control Chinese-Canadian culture in Ontario Ethnic enclaves in Ontario Neighbourhoods in Ottawa
Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
Restaurant districts and streets in Canada