Chinatown, Las Vegas

The Chinatown of Las Vegas, Nevada is a series of vibrant large shopping centers with ethnic Chinese and other Pan-Asian businesses, with the original called Chinatown Plaza. The strip mall was conceived by Taiwanese American developer James Chih-Cheng Chen and opened in 1995. The Chinatown area has gained in such immense popularity and also received national attention in a great article by The Wall Street Journal; check below for the article and author.

Newer shopping centers developed in recent years by other developers include:

• Great China Plaza - opened in 1999
• Pacific Asian Plaza - opened in 2001
• The Center at Spring Mountain - opened in 2002, extended this year to include more businesses

These astounding Las Vegas shopping centers contain quite unique and interesting architecture which combines traditional Chinese motifs and red gateways with modern-style strip malls found in American suburbia and parked well away from the touristified casino areas. However, Chinatown Plaza remains the main cultural center of Chinatown as many special events and popular restaurants are located there. They reflect the booming Asian origin population in Las Vegas.

As a whole, Las Vegas's Chinatown is located west of the Las Vegas Strip on Spring Mountain Road - just a stone's throw away from the Treasure Island and Venetian casinos. Also included in Chinatown are scores of Filipino, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese American businesses as it serves a pan-Asian community, making the term Chinatown somewhat of a misnomer. Some Pacific Islanders also have some businesses here. The Chinatown also serves the local population and tourists as well. Indeed, it is generally the only place within Las Vegas to get truly authentic Chinese and Asian cuisine, such as a wonderful bowl of Vietnamese Pho noodle soup or a cup of cold boba tea on a scorching desert day. The very popular 99 Ranch Market - where live fresh fish or authentic oyster sauce could now be had - at Chinatown Plaza is often beset by very heavy traffic and parking problems. Thus, these problems gave rise to the much larger Shun Fat Supermarket in Pacific Asian Plaza, which was opened in the 2000s.

The Las Vegas Chinatown resembles many of the suburban "Chinatowns" found in Southern California and Silicon Valley, in the form of sprawl with generously large parking lots. It is generally unlike the old and dense tightly-packed Chinatowns of San Francisco (undisputedly the largest and oldest in the United States) or Los Angeles. In contrast to most urban U.S. Chinatown ghettoes - where the quintessential old-world image of Chinatown prevails - including those of displays of roast ducks on windows, outdoor vegetable and fruit stands, immigrant old-timers hanging about, Chinese-speaking locals and stupefied tourists bumping each other on overcrowded sidewalks, and so on - the modern 99 Ranch Market chain is the key anchor to the area with other well-known and celebrated Southern California-based chain businesses such as popular Sam Woo Restaurant (serving Cantonese cuisine) and Kim Tar Restaurant (serving Chaozhou/Teochew cuisine).

During the Chinese New Year, the plaza also hosts Las Vegas's special annual Asian food festival with great energetic lion and dragon dance performances and superb Japanese taiko drum performances. They are definitely of one of the kind in Nevada.

At first, "Chinatown" was conceived for the purpose of serving Asian American tourists and business visiting from the Southern California area. At present, the population of Asian Americans in Las Vegas is 22,879 and comprise 4.8% of the total population as of the 2000 Census. Almost half of Las Vegas's Chinese American population - numbering at 2,784 residents - are from Taiwan. Some came from mainland China and Southeast Asia. Some segment of the Asian American population work in the casinos.

In comparison with the early 1990s when the Chinese origin population was minuscule, Las Vegas now has a Chinese-language newspapers and there is a Chinese American Chamber of Commer.

External link

• Las Vegas Chinatown Plaza (http://www.lvchinatown.com)
• The Center at Spring Mountain (http://www.centeratspringmountain.com)
• Pacific Asian Plaza (http://www.pacificasianplaza.com)
• Chinatown expands borders (http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2001/Jul-10-Tue-2001/business/16487449.html) - Las Vegas Review-Journal article
• http://www.unlv.edu/faculty/gbp/ant427/ant427fm/ - A well-done ethnic studies ethnography project with very descriptive work on Chinatown Plaza from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Plenty of pics for good measure.

Further reading

For Asians in U.S., Mini-Chinatowns Sprout in Suburbia, Barry Newman, The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2004 (article on development of Las Vegas's Chinatown).