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My first visit to a Chinatown was in San Francisco as a new flight attendant. Although I had never been to China, in my mind this was pretty close to what I expected it to look like. Hours of my layovers were spent wandering the streets and shops, hoping one day to see the real thing when I would be senior enough to hold those trips.
Over the years, I have traveled the world and there have been multiple visits to Chinatowns throughout…New York, Washington, D.C., Milan, London, Havana, Manchester, Amsterdam…each unique in their own right, but all brimming with restaurants offering mouthwatering delicacies, shops selling everything from antiquities to dime-store trinkets and streets filled with Chinese architecture, signs and lanterns. I still love spending time in these neighborhoods and continue to seek them out whenever possible.
A friend’s retirement party brought me to Chicago one weekend this past spring. Though I had been through O’Hare airport many years ago, I had never been to the downtown area. Eager to see its highlights, I set out early. I had discovered that Chicago had a unique Chinatown and I headed in that direction with a stop at the Shedd Aquarium along the way. It was a cold and drizzly day and I huddled against the brisk wind blowing in from the lake, making my way through Grant Park, only to find an extensive line at the aquarium and a sign stating that reservations were required and no longer available.
Despite this disappointment, I pushed on and continued my walk along the harbor, passing Soldier Field and inspecting the bronze statues of Hall of Famers Walter Payton and team founder/former coach George Halas at the south entrance. It would have been interesting to take a tour of the Chicago Bears’ home field or take in a game, if it had been football season, but I really wanted to experience Chi-Town’s Chinatown.
First encountering the crimson-hued entrance to Ping Tom Memorial Park with its beautiful Chinese-style pavilion, I then spied the Chinatown gateway at the intersection of S. Wentworth Avenue and Cermak Road. The colorful gate, a prominent display at most Chinatowns entrances, was constructed in 1975 and meant to act as a symbol of unity for the Chinese. As I walked beneath this massive structure, designed by Peter Fung, I was struck by the simplicity of its design and rich-toned hues that reflected its origins.
Chicago’s Chinatown was first established in 1869 when immigrants began to arrive from San Francisco with the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. With no work to be found after the railroad’s opportunities were exhausted, the Chinese fled to other areas within the United States which were more accessible than the discriminative west coast. By the late 1800s, a large portion of the city’s Chinese residents had settled in the area which is now Chinatown and after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, more arrived in droves.
Butcher shops, restaurants, gambling houses, Christian mission houses, Chinese laundries and grocery stores were prevalent in the area and Chicagoans, welcomed the new arrivals and patronized their businesses. In fact, frequenting the chop suey restaurants became extremely popular and more restaurants continued to open.
As expected, I found Wentworth Avenue to be replete with authentic Chinese restaurants, shops, buildings topped with pagodas, lion statues, mosaics and intriguing architecture. Although it is one of Chicago’s smallest neighborhoods, it was filled with huge sights and sounds!
Because I was obligated to meet my party for a meal later, taking the opportunity to enjoy a fare of dim-sum or noodles wasn’t in the cards for me, however, I stopped in to The Seven Treasures Cantonese Restaurant for a fresh coconut drink. Even though it was cold out, it was refreshing and reminded me of the drinks I once purchased from street vendors in Cambodia!
Before heading back to the metro, I wanted to see two of Chicago’s Chinatown’s important works of art. In Chinatown Square, I examined the two-story shopping center decorated with twelve sculptures of the Chinese zodiac and the mural “Chinese in America” which describes the history of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. and the Chinese cultural beliefs. 100,000 individually cut pieces of hand-painted glass from China were used to create this spectacular mural. Across the road and on my way to the metro station, I encountered the prominent Nine Dragon Wall. Modeled after the wall in Beihai Park in Beijing, it is made up of glazed tile from China and replicates the large dragons and over 500 smaller dragons painted in red, gold and blue signifying the Chinese focus on good fortune. It is only one of three such replicas outside of China.
Finally, time to head back to my hotel, I reluctantly boarded the train at the Cermak-Chinatown metro station. My time in Chi-Town’s Chinatown, was brief, yet an enlightening and entertaining experience. Much like my experiences in San Francisco many times over the years, I reveled in the art, architecture and cuisine. But as much as I enjoyed Chi-Town’s Chinatown and many others, I still found myself wishing that it could have been the real thing.
One day.
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Chinatown
Chinatown Square
- https://www.chicagochinatown.org/
- Address: 2133 S. China Place, Chicago, Illinois 60616-1536
Nine Dragon Wall
- Address: 158 W. Cermak Road, Chicago, Illinois 60616
- Hours: 24 hours, daily
- Admission: free