CHINATOWN – Philadelphia’s Chinatown is a neighborhood located in Center City. While similar in many aspects to Chinatowns of other cities, there is a great deal of distinctly Philadelphian architecture and cultural character here.

Chinatown stretches from Arch to Vine Streets, and from 8th to 11th Streets. The area grew from a much smaller semblance of a neighborhood in the form of a laundry on Tenth and Race Streets in 1870. Common referral to the neighborhood as it is known today began in 1926. Chinatown is a center of Asian culture in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. The neighborhood also serves as a center of trade, a tourist destination, and holds many of the city’s finest ethnic restaurants and bakeries.

A prominent landmark in Chinatown is the ‘Friendship Arch’which is call a paifang in the Chinese language, meaning ‘marker edifice’. Though it is common to see a paifang in many North American Chinatowns, the arch in Philadelphia is more ornate than most.

More Information