Chinatown: Historic heartland of Sydney's Chinese community
Many major, multicultural cities around the world have their own unique Chinatowns, and Sydney, with its thriving Chinese and Asian communities, is home to Australia’s largest.
Sydney’s original Chinatown began life in The Rocks in the late 19th century, before being shifted to Market Street in Darling Harbour. In the 1920s it finally became established in its current location within the bounds of Dixon, Hay and Sussex streets.
Today’s Chinatown has continued to expand into an even larger area bounded by George Street in the east to Darling Harbour in the west. But, for most people, a visit to Chinatown means trawling the pedestrian only mall along Dixon Street, usually on the trail of some of the city’s best and most authentic Asian cuisine. The paved mall is the oldest part of Chinatown, and is marked by a traditional paifang archway at each end.
Here you’ll find many of Sydney’s most esteemed Chinese restaurants, as well as a variety of other Asian themed eateries. The entire Chinatown area is home to some 60 restaurants, covering Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian and Indonesian cuisine. Aficionados of Chinese cooking will be enthralled by the variety of regional Chinese cuisines available, with speciality restaurants dedicated to Cantonese, Sichuan, Shanghai, Yunnanese, Uighur and Northern Chinese dishes.
Some specialise in yum cha (dim sum), others are all about seafood or vegetarian cuisine, while others still are devoted to sociable style of dining known as hot pot, in which steaming bowls of broth are served over a live flame and raw ingredients are cooked at the diner’s table. Chinatown stays open all night, and when all the other restaurants in Sydney are shutting up shop, some of Chinatown’s favourite eateries are just coming to life, with a handful serving fresh cooked meals til 4am.
The area is also a bustling shopping precinct, with brightly lit stores selling Asian groceries, Chinese medicinal herbs, clothing, homewares, movies, gifts and kitschy novelty items, as well as souvenirs at rock bottom prices.
At the southern end of Dixon Street, Market City is a vast three storey complex, home to a bustling ground floor flea market, a modern shopping centre, a food court and a tavern. Karaoke bars flourish in the area, and there are often street performers in the mall playing traditional Chinese music.
Chinatown is at its most atmospheric during Chinese New Year, a 15 day celebration that sees the streets strung with red lanterns and the mall abuzz with roving lion dance parades and ear splitting sound of traditional Chinese firecrackers.
HelloSydney Tip: While the Chinatown in the city centre is by far Sydney’s most popular, in the last few decades a number of smaller Chinatowns have popped up in the outer suburbs of Sydney. Some of the most notable are in Eastwood, Parramatta, Ashfield, Cabramatta, Campsie and Hurstville.
Posted by Fiona Davies
