Chinatown, Sydney
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sydney's Chinatown (Chinese:雪梨唐人街/悉尼華埠) is an urban locality in the southern part of the Sydney central business district, in New South Wales. It is located in Haymarket, between Central Station and Darling Harbour. It is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney and is Australia's largest Chinatown.
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[edit] Location and History
The current location is the third in Sydney to be known as Chinatown. In the late 19th century, it was located in the Rocks area of Sydney and later moved to the area near Market Street at Darling Harbour. By the 1920s, it began to be established in its current location. Chinatown is centred around Dixon Street, a pedestrian street mall with many Chinese restaurants, and with a Paifang at each end. At the eastern side, running parallel with Dixon Street, are Sussex Street, which has a number of shops, and George Street, one of Sydney's main thoroughfares. At the eastern end of Chinatown, at the corner of George Street and Hay Street, there is a sculpture made from a dead tree trunk; named Golden Water Mouth, it was said by its instigators to bring good fortune to the Chinese community. Other streets within Sydney's Chinatown include Factory Street, Goulburn Street, Little Hay Street, Pitt Street and Thomas Street.
At the southern side of Chinatown, next to Hay Street, a large complex called Market City has been built, behind the walls retained from the site's old produce markets. It contains a modern shopping centre, restaurants, boutique shops, a cinema complex, and a Friday-to-Sunday produce and flea market trading as Paddy's Market, as well as a large residential high-rise building.
Unlike the Chinatowns in some other countries, Sydney's Chinatown has been relatively free of crime and hygiene issues.[citation needed] However since there are many skyscrapers in Sydney, there are some concerns within the Chinese community about the building height restrictions imposed by the image-conscious local government authorities.
There are also satellite Chinatowns that have emerged in the past two decades in several Sydney suburbs such as Ashfield, Cabramatta, Hurstville and Eastwood. But Sydney's Chinatown still remains a major focus for the Chinese Australian community.
[edit] Demographics
The Chinese who make up the population of Sydney's Chinatown are predominantly Cantonese. 40% are of Zhongshan descent, 24% are of Gaoyao descent, 20% are of Dongguan descent and 10% are of Siyi descent (mostly from Taishan and Xinhui)[1].
[edit] Sister Cities
Sydney City is the sister city of Guangzhou in China, and as a gift to Sydney in Australia's Bicentennial year (1988), the Chinese Garden of Friendship was constructed on the western border of Chinatown in the Darling Harbour Precinct. It is one of the few public traditional Chinese gardens outside of China.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- "Eastern promise spreads to the suburbs", The Sydney Morning Herald, 2002-09-06.
[edit] Further reading
- Fitzgerald, Shirley (1997). Red Tape, Gold Scissors (The story of Sydney's Chinese) (Paperback), State Library of New South Wales Press in association with The City of Sydney, 206 pages. ISBN 0-7310-6607-3.
[edit] External links
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