Toronto Chinatowns are ethnic enclaves in Toronto, Canada, with a high concentration of ethnic Chinese residents and businesses. These neighborhoods are major cultural, social, and economic hubs for the Chinese-Canadian communities of the region. In addition to Toronto, several areas in the Greater Toronto Area also hold a high concentration of Chinese residents and businesses.
When used directly in Toronto, the term “Chinatown” typically refers to the neighborhood in downtown Toronto, which extends along Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue. The Chinese community in this downtown Chinatown previously originated from First Chinatown, which was located in what used to be known as The Ward. With changes in the city and subsequent waves of immigration from the mid-20th century onwards, East Chinatown developed at the intersection of Broadview Avenue and Gerrard Street, as well as suburban Chinatowns in Scarborough and North York. In the Greater Toronto Area, Markham, Mississauga, and Richmond Hill have all developed sizable Chinatowns. The large Chinese communities of northern Scarborough, Markham, and Richmond Hill form a continuous L-shaped belt.
19th Century
The earliest record of Toronto’s Chinese community is traced to Sam Ching, who owned a hand laundry business on Adelaide Street in 1878. Ching was the first Chinese person in the city’s directory and is now honored with a lane named after him. The first Chinese cafe opened in 1901 and grew to 19 in 1912 and around 100 a decade after that. Bed Bug Exterminator Toronto
20th Century
When the Qing dynasty fell in 1912, the reform association became defunct, and the business next to it moved away from the Queen Street East neighborhood. Meanwhile, the Chinese community in Queen Street West and York Street continued to grow and moved into the adjacent properties within Toronto’s Ward district vacated by the Jewish population. This created Toronto’s first Chinatown.
First Chinatown
The First Chinatown of Toronto, CA was developed between 1900 and 1925 along York Street and Elizabeth Street between Queen and Dundas Streets. Situated in what was then known as “The Ward,” one of the city’s largest slum areas for incoming immigrants, the area was expropriated and razed in 1955, despite numerous protests, to make way for Toronto New City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square, with only one-third of this original Chinatown left south of Dundas Street. More than three-quarters of the neighborhood was commandeered due to forced dispossession.
Downtown Chinatown
The present-day downtown Chinatown, or west Chinatown at Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West, also known as Old Chinatown, was formerly a Jewish district formed during the 1950s. The neighborhood has been noted as a “near complete community” with housing, employment, commerce, schools, and social services, all within walking distance.
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