Chinatown: A preservation of history
The Chinatown in Washington is a ghost version of its original, which thrived between the 1930s and 1960s. Chinese restaurants and businesses still exist, but the neighborhood has been overshadowed by shopping-mall type stores, chain restaurants, and the Verizon Center. The only reminder of Chinatown is the enormous Friendship Arch and signage in Chinese characters, plus a small handful of Chinese restaurants.
Chinatown is situated between H and I streets and 5th through 8th streets. Chinese signage is required on all store fronts, including Starbucks, Ann Taylor, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Legal Seafoods, though some of the Chinese characters are poorly written, according to Chinese readers. Approximately 20 Chinese-owned restaurants are still operating in the neighborhood.
The most popular are Tony Cheng's, Szechuan Gallery and Eat First. There's also a number of discount long-distance bus services that pick up between Chinatowns along the East Coast and fondly known as “Chinatown buses”. MVP bus is owned by Tony Cheng's son. In DC the buses still consider Chinatown a legitimate place for Chinese travelers. Every year, there's a Chinese New Year celebration and parade in Chinatown, including a dancing lion, performances and food vendors.
Several of the buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the building where John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators met to plan Lincoln's assassination (Mary Surrat's house, now the restaurant Wok & Roll). The neighborhood is an interesting juxtaposition of ealy American history through present day.
Chinatown was abandoned by its Chinese residents for the suburbs in 1968 after the Martin Luther King Jr. riots and due to high taxes and rising crime, the neighborhood underwent a transformation. In 1976 a Metro stop had arrived. In an effort to preserve the neighborhood, in 1986, a local Chinese architect, Alfred H. Liu, designed the Friendship Arch.
It features seven roofs and 272 painted dragons in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The arch cost $1 million and is supposedly the largest single-span archway in the world. It was built in celebration of Washington's relationship with its sister city, Beijing, and meant to retain the Chinese character of the neighborhood.
The Metro stop is properly called Gallery Place/ Chinatown, and the area has gentrified greatly in the past few years, thanks to a $200 million investment to build up the area. One can easily spend an afternoon in the area area shopping and dining at the many high-end restaurants before taking in a Capitals game at the Verizon Center.
HelloWashingtonDC Tip: A burgeoning nightlife grew up on the scene in the past few years as well, plus a number of high rise apartments and condos, making Chinatown the next new hip neighborhood in Washington.
Posted by Rin-rin Yu
