Monthly Archives: October 2009

We have discussed numerous neighbourhoods in Toronto, and it is about time that we move onto a neighbourhood we have all heard about, Chinatown.

Toronto’s Chinatown is an ethnic enclave in downtown with a high concentration of ethnic Chinese residents and businesses that extend along Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue.

Chinatown was first developed in the late 19th century, and today it is one of the largest Chinatowns in North America, and one of several major Chinese-Canadian communities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Looking back at the history of Chinatown, you can find the earliest record is traced back to Sam Ching, who owned a hand laundry business on Adelaide Street in 1878. Ching was the first Chinese person listed on the city’s directory.

Despite the strict limitations placed on Chinese immigration with the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885, Chinatown took its shape over the next two decades along Bay Street and Elizabeth Street.

By 1919, the Chinese population in Toronto was over 1,000; there were hundreds of Chinese owned businesses that had developed. These businesses mainly comprises of restaurants, grocery stores and hand laundries.

Chinatown had become a well established community that extended along Bay Street between Dundas Street and Queen Street in The Ward.

Now, today we see Chinatown located along Spadina Avenue, the reason for this was due to the plans to construct the new Toronto City Hall at the intersection of Queen and Bay Streets in the late 1950s.

As most of Chinatown would become displaced during the project, Chinese businesses began to relocate; some stores were taken over by developers, and most stores that occupied the project site were cleared through expropriation.

The Chinese community then migrates westward to its current location along Spadina Avenue. Now, there still remain a handful of Chinese businesses that remain around Bay and Dundas.

An interesting fact about Chinatown is that its street names are bilingual, a feature that was first introduced in the 1970s.

Chinatown was the film location for a television series some of you might remember, “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues”. It was filmed to portray a major U.S. city.

Now Chinatown’s demographics are represented by immigrants and families from southern China and Hong Kong, however recently there are an increased amount of students from the adjacent Ontario College of Art and Design; from Ryerson University; and the University of Toronto have arrived in search of affordable housing. There is also an increase in Latin American immigrants.

The increase brings in ethnicity, and some people worry that it might gradually reduce the identity of Chinatown, however I do not see that happening anytime soon.

Chinatown is a neighbourhood of great history; it is definitely a location that you should visit at least once in your life.