Chinatown (; ) is an urban

enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

situated in the southern part of the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or ...

, in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It comprises the majority of the Haymarket suburb, between

Central station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

and

Darling Harbour Darling Harbour is a harbour and neighborhood adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central busines ...

. It is part of the

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

of the

City of Sydney The City of Sydney is the Local government in Australia, local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the Greater Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament ...

, and is Australia's largest

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 ...

. Sydney, and the colony of New South Wales, experienced Chinese migration as early as 1828. The first group of Chinese labourers from Amoy (modern day Xiamen) embarked for

in 1848. With the discovery of gold in 1851 Chinese immigration increased, and by 1855 the number of Chinese immigrants reached around 17,000. The Chinese population had traditionally been represented by those who came from Southern China (i.e. provinces such as Guangdong and Fujian), due to the majority of colonial ports being located in the southern coast of China.

History

One of the many nationalities to arrive in Australia during the Gold Rush years of the 1850s were the Chinese, and large groups stayed on after the Gold Rush itself ended. They settled largely in their own communities, working in locations across Sydney, with many of these Chinese immigrants becoming market gardeners on the city's fringe. By 1861 there were some 13,000 Chinese living in New South Wales, and during this time the Chinatown was in The Rocks district, also known as the 'Chinese Quarter'. Anti-immigration sentiment was rife during the 1880s, and a

Royal Commission A royal commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue in some monarchies. They have been held in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, Mauritius and Saudi Arabia. In republics an equi ...

into "Alleged Chinese Gambling and Immorality" began in 1892, due to the number of opium dens and brothels that were found in the area, similar to Melbourne's Chinatown. This attitude of negativity towards the Chinese had settled down by the time of

Federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

in 1901. By the 1920s, Sydney's Chinatown migrated over to Campbell Street, in the vicinity of the popular Capitol Theatre. Since 2019, Dixon Street and other intersecting streets are completely vehicle-free every Friday from 4pm, in order to host the Friday night markets. Different stalls selling Asian street food, desserts, and confectionery line the streets and alleyways, and the markets can become extremely busy.

Location

Traditional boundaries

Officially, Chinatown does not have clearly defined borders, due to its continuous growth. The traditional core of the Haymarket Chinatown has been centred around Dixon Street, a pedestrian street mall with many Chinese restaurants, and with a

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 ...

(a traditional Chinese gateway) at each end. At the eastern side, running parallel with Dixon Street, are Sussex Street and George Street, Sydney city's main thoroughfare. Other streets and lanes within Sydney's Chinatown include Factory Street,

Goulburn Street Goulburn Street is a street in the central business district of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. Goulburn Street is in the southern portion of the Sydney central business district and runs from Darling Harbour and Chinatown in the west, t ...

, Little Hay Street, Kimber Lane and Thomas Street. At the eastern end of Chinatown, at the corner of George Street and Hay Street, there is a sculpture made from a dead tree trunk; created by artist Lin Li in 1999 and named ''Golden Water Mouth''. Its designer believed that it would bring good fortune to the Chinese community.

Recent expansion

The current location of modern day Chinatown is actually the third known area to have been considered a Chinatown. When Sydney's produce market moved from what became the site of the

Queen Victoria Building The Queen Victoria Building (abbreviated as the QVB) is a heritage-listed late-19th-century building located at 429–481 George Street, Sydney, George Street in the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. D ...

to the Belmore Markets, the Haymarket and

Surry Hills Surry Hills is an Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), inner-east suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the Local government in Australia, local gover ...

areas became the focus for Sydney's Chinese citizens. By the 1920s Chinatown began to consolidate at its current location. Haymarket Market City

On Hay Street, the construction of The Peak Apartments, a residential skyscraper, in 1996 and the newly renovated Market City shopping complex built over the Paddy's Market further consolidated Chinatown. Market City contains food courts with chain restaurants (such as Haidilao), an 800+ seat Dim Sum Restaurant (''The Eight Modern Chinese Restaurant''), boutique shops, City Amusements (a large indoor entertainment complex), and the Haymarket Paddy's Markets, a Wednesday-to-Sunday produce and

flea market A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously owned (secondhand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal' ...

. Likewise, the completion of Darling Square in late 2017 adjacent to Market City added multiple new apartment complexes and a plethora of new facilities and restaurants that fully integrated Chinatown into the urban core of Sydney. Unlike the Chinatowns in some other countries, Sydney's Chinatown has been relatively free of crime and hygiene issues. However, since there are many

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

s in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, there are some concerns within the Chinese community about the building height restrictions imposed by the image-conscious local government authorities.

Suburbification

There are also satellite Chinatowns that have emerged in the past two decades in several Sydney suburbs such as Ashfield,

Hurstville Hurstville is a suburb in Southern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is south of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD and is part of the St George, New South Wales, St George area. Hurstville is the administrative centre of ...

, Eastwood, Campsie,

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

, Chatswood, Burwood, Flemington and Kingsford. Each of these suburbs are increasingly diverse in that people from specific regions in China settle together in one suburb, traditionally known as an

ethnic enclave In sociology, an ethnic enclave is a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. The term is usually used to refer to either a residential area or a workspace with a high concentration ...

. For example, Ashfield is known as 'little Shanghai' whilst Hurstville has a high concentration of people from Hong Kong. However, Sydney's Chinatown still remains both a social and cultural centre for the Chinese Australian community in Sydney as it continues to expand.

Demographics

Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown Sydney

According to the

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is an List of Australian Government entities, Australian Government agency that collects and analyses statistics on economic, population, Natural environment, environmental, and social issues to advi ...

, in 2016 the Chinatown and Haymarket area included a significant population of Chinese (31.9%), Thai (18.3%), Indonesian (5.6%), English (5.1%) and Korean (4.8%) population. The most spoken languages at home apart from English were Thai (20.4%), Mandarin (20.3%), Indonesian (10.2%), Cantonese (5.1%), and Korean (4.8%). Furthermore, there is a significant student population from Asia, due to the close proximity of educational institutions such as the

University of Technology Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public university, public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1988, though its origins as a Institute of technology, ...

, Technical and Further Education (TAFE NSW), and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. As of 2016, 25.9% of the residents in Chinatown were studying at university or

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE () is the common name in Australia for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational courses. Colloquially also known ...

and 33.4% of individuals in the Haymarket area had a attained a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

or above. As a centrally located Chinatown (that is adjacent to, and being gradually absorbed by the growing

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

), there are many white collar workers. Out of the 65,950 workers in the surrounding area in 2017, 18% worked in finance & financial services, 17% in the government, and 13.6% in professional & business services. The median weekly household income in 2016 was $1,696, slightly above the national average of $1,659 in 2019.

Chinese Garden of Friendship

Sydney is the

sister city A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inte ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, and as a gift to Sydney during the

Australian Bicentenary The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1988. It marked 200 years since the arrival of the First Fleet of British convict ships at Sydney in 1788. History The bicentennial year marked Captain Arthur Phillip's arrival with the 11 ships ...

in 1988, the Chinese Garden of Friendship () was constructed west of Chinatown in the

precinct. The relationship between

and Guangzhou (previously romanized as Canton), the capital of

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

province, is particularly strong because of trade and migration since the earliest days of colonisation. The agreement stipulated

would provide the design of the garden and key building materials, furniture and artworks that are intrinsic to the classic garden typology, while New South Wales would manage and fund its construction through the Darling Harbour Authority. It is one of the few public traditional Chinese gardens outside of China and is a horticultural expression of a private garden and can also be classified as a scholar's or classical garden. The gardens were added to the

New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...

on 5 October 2018. The garden hosts activities such as lessons on its history and design philosophy, landscape tours, school visits, wedding functions, koi fish feeding, among others.

Bilingual street signs

There are many bilingual street signs across Chinatown, denoting the name of streets, lanes, and roads in both English and Chinese. Some of the names are based on their Cantonese pronunciation (e.g. Hay Street; 禧街 which is pronounced ''"Hēi Gāai"'' in Cantonese, but ''"Xǐ Jiē"'' in Mandarin") whilst others are based on their Mandarin pronunciation (e.g. Liverpool Street; 利物浦街 which is pronounced ''"Lìwùpǔ Jiē"'' in Mandarin, but "''Léihmáhtpóu Gāai"'' in Cantonese). Some of these signs are accompanied by their official

street signs. On the bottom of each of these signs, it reads, "Welcome to Chinatown" and "歡迎光臨華埠". File:Bilingual Dixon Street sign, Sydney Chinatown.jpg, Dixon Street; 德信街 (Cantonese: ''Dakseun Gāai''; Mandarin: ''Déxìn Jiē'') File:Bilingual Factory Street sign, Sydney Chinatown.jpg, Factory Street; 發多利街 (Cantonese: ''Faatdōleih Gāai''; Mandarin: ''Faduōlì Jiē'') File:Bilingual Goulburn Street sign, Sydney Chinatown.jpg, Goulburn Street; 高賓街 (Cantonese: ''Gōubān Gāai''; Mandarin: ''Gāobīn Jiē'') File:Bilingual Hay Street sign, Sydney Chinatown.jpg, Hay Street; 禧街 (Cantonese: ''Hēi Gāai''; Mandarin: ''Xǐ Jiē'') File:Bilingual Kimber Lane sign, Sydney Chinatown.jpg, Kimber Lane; 金貝里 (Cantonese: ''Gāmbui Léih''; Mandarin: ''Jīnbèi Lǐ'') File:Bilingual Little Hay Street sign, Sydney Chinatown.jpg, Little Hay Street; 小禧街 (Cantonese: ''Síuhēi Gāai''; Mandarin: ''Xiǎoxǐ Jiē'') File:Liverpool Street Chinatown.JPG, Liverpool Street; 利物浦街 (Cantonese: ''Léihmáhtpóu Gāai''; Mandarin: ''Lìwùpǔ Jiē'') File:Bilingual Sussex Street sign, Sydney Chinatown.jpg, Sussex Street; 莎瑟街 (Cantonese: ''Sāsāt Gāai''; Mandarin: ''Shāsè Jiē'') File:Bilingual Thomas Lane sign, Sydney Chinatown.jpg, Thomas Lane; 湯馬士里 (Cantonese: ''Tōngmáhsih Léih''; Mandarin: ''Tāngmǎshì Lǐ'') File:Bilingual Thomas Street sign, Sydney Chinatown.jpg, Thomas Street; 湯馬士街 (Cantonese: ''Tōngmáhsih Gāai''; Mandarin: ''Tāngmǎshì Jiē'') File:Bilingual Ultimo Road sign, Sydney Chinatown.jpg, Ultimo Road; 歐廸模道 (Cantonese: ''Āudihkmòuh Douh''; Mandarin: ''Ōudímó Dào'') File:Old bilingual Ultimo Road sign, Sydney Chinatown.jpg, Older sign for Ultimo Road; 歐田磨路 (Cantonese: ''Āutìhnmòh Louh''; Mandarin: ''Ōutiánmó Lù'')

Gallery

Dixon House Chinatown Sydney.jpg, Dixon House, 80 Dixon Street Chinatown Night Market, Sydney.jpg, Friday Night Markets in Chinatown Entrance to Sydney's Chinatown illuminated at night.jpg, Entrance to Chinatown via Haymarket, at night Darling Square Sydney 2.jpg, Darling Square has extended Chinatown towards Darling Harbour Sydney Chinatown.jpg, Haymarket (2013) Building in Chinatown, Sydney.jpg, The Sydney office of the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

Sydney Chinese Gardens HDR (8403135289).jpg, The Chinese Garden of Friendship Corner store in Chinatown, Sydney.jpg, Corner store in Chinatown Lunar New Year in Chinatown, Sydney.jpg, Lunar New Year celebrations 2012 Lunar New Year in Chinatown, Sydney.jpg, Lunar New Year celebrations

Cultural depictions

* Sydney's Chinatown is the setting and film location of the music video for

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

's 1983 single '' China Girl''. * Parts of Sydney Chinatown appear in the 1999 film '' Two Hands'' * A scene for Dulcea's compound in

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

's 1995 superhero film '' Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie'' * Appeared in ''The Wolverine'' in October 2012

References

External links

* CC-By-SA">Creative_Commons_license.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Creative Commons license">CC-By-SA/nowiki>
SYDNEY.com - Chinatown and Haymarket