Chinatown Philadelphia Restaurant Takeout Menus

费城华埠菜单

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About Philadelphia Chinatown

Philadelphia Chinatown (Simplified Chinese: 费城华埠, Traditional Chinese: 費城華埠, Pinyin: Fèichéng Huábù) is a predominantly Asian American neighborhood located within the Center City district in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC, T: 費城華埠發展會, S: 费城华埠发展会, P: Fèichéng Huábù Fā​zhǎn Huì) supports the area.

Philadelphia Chinatown History

In the mid-19th century, Cantonese immigrants to Philadelphia opened laundries and restaurants in an area in close proximity to Philadelphia's commercial wharves. This led to the start of Philadelphia's Chinatown.[1] The first business was a laundry owned by Lee Fong at 913 Race Street; it opened in 1871. In the following years, Chinatown consisted of ethnic Chinese businesses clustered around the 900 block of Race Street.[2] Before the mid-1960s it consisted of several restaurants and one grocery store.[3]

In the mid-1960s large numbers of families began moving to Chinatown.[3] During various periods of urban renewal, starting in the 1960s, portions of Chinatown were razed for the construction of the Vine Street Expressway and the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation was formed in 1968. This gave community and business leaders more say in matters of local development.[4]

In years leading up to 1998, businesses catering to other immigrants from East Asian countries, like Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam, opened in Chinatown.[1]

In the late 1990s the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team was hoping to build a new ball park in downtown Philadelphia to replace the aging Veterans Stadium in South Philadelphia. Several locations were considered, including 12th and Vine Streets, just north of the Vine Street Expressway. The Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation mounted an intense opposition to the ballpark plans. Residents were concerned that the ballpark would destroy Chinatown. The PCDC staged protests and rallies that united neighborhood groups, religious, labor, ethnic, and political groups.[3] Eventually the Phillies built Citizens Bank Park at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, which opened in 2004.[citation needed]

Philadelphia Chinatown Boundaries

Vine Street is the northern boundary of Chinatown. Restaurants and shops, with apartment units located above, are in the buildings south of Vine street, within Chinatown. Factories and other industrial properties are located on the other side of Vine Street.[5] Filbert Street serves as the southern border.[6] Chinatown includes a core area that has seven city blocks. Many of the residents of the block were, as of 1998, recent immigrants.[1]

Developments in the 20th century formed the current boundaries of the Philadelphia Chinatown. In the 1920s ramps leading to the Ben Franklin Bridge were constructed at Chinatown's northern edge. At another point, the city condemned an area east of what is now Chinatown so that the new headquarters of the Philadelphia Police Department, Independence Mall, and a hospital could be constructed.[6] At one point the city proposed building an eight lane highway that would divide the Philadelphia Chinatown into two parts and eliminate the Holy Redeemer Church and School. The church and school remained, while the Vine Street Expressway, smaller than its original proposed size, was built. Cecelia Yep, one of the founders of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Coalition, said "I think we saw it as a plan to get rid of Chinatown. [The church and school] was the only thing good in Chinatown at the time. We thought it was a fight for survival."[3] The construction of the Market East Station in the 1970s and 1980s established Filbert Street as Chinatown's southern border. As a result of the construction of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which opened in 1993, the Chinatown buildings located on Arch Street, up to the intersection of 13th Street, were demolished.[6] In addition, a federal prison, the Federal Detention Center, Philadelphia, opened in the area. AsianWeek said "Each was built with much compromising, and now they form a circle around Chinatown's current core of about five city blocks."[3]

By 1998 community leaders had taken a property bounded by 8th Street, 9th Street, Callowhill, and Vine in order to establish a $7 million townhome complex called Hing Wah Yuen (T: 興華園, S: 兴华园, P: Xīng Huá Yuán, "Prosperous Chinese Garden").[5]

Philadelphia Chinatown Demographics

As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the service area of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation had 1,362 residents in 459 households. Of the residents, 1,085 were Asian American, 152 were White American, 71 were African American, 31 were of other races, and 23 were Hispanic American. During that year the community had 509 housing units, with 50 of them being vacant and 85 of them being owner occupied.[7]

As of 1998 the wider Chinatown area had about 4,000 residents. Many of them worked in fifty clothing assembly companies, restaurants, and related suppliers located in the area. As of that year, most residents were Chinese American. As of the 1990 U.S. Census the median income of Chinatown was under $15,000. The median income of the 47,000 residents of Center City Philadelphia as a whole was $60,000.[1] As of 2000, of the 4,000 residents of the wider area, about 70% have no English fluency.[3]

The Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation said that the area also serves about 250,000 Chinese Americans residing in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.[3]

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