Koreatown, Toronto

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Street signs in Korea Town.

A bowl of Korean pork-bone soup, a popular dish in Toronto's Koreatown.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada's Korean Business Area, known more generally as Koreatown (or Korea Town), is centred along Bloor Street between Christie and Bathurst Streets. Also known as "Little Korea", Koreatown came into prominence during the summer of 2002 as the Korean team surprised everyone by playing into the semi-final round in the 2002 World Cup tournament. Traffic came to a halt on Bloor Street West as exuberant crowds celebrated the accomplishments of their favourite team.

The adoption of a more liberal immigration policy by the Canadian government in 1967 led to an influx of Korean immigrants, many of whom settled in the Toronto area. Indeed, Toronto has the largest single concentration of Koreans in Canada with almost 50,000 living in the city, according to the 2001 Census. Many of them settled in the Bloor and Bathurst area, and before long, a small Korean business neighbourhood emerged along Bloor Street, centred around the intersection of Bloor and Manning Avenue. Restaurants, bakeries, gift shops, grocery stores, and travel agencies began to open up, most of which catered to the Korean-Canadian community.

Prior to the influx of Korean immigrants in the 1980s, the section of Bloor West of Bathurst was heavily populated by people from Central and South America, and the area still has a strong Latin influence today.

[edit] Koreatown, North York

Since the early 1990's, a Koreatown has also emerged in North York along Yonge Street between Sheppard Avenue and just north of Steeles Avenue. The area composes of North York, Ontario (Willowdale, Toronto and Newtonbrook) and Thornhill, Ontario (Vaughan, Ontario and Markham, Ontario).

The new Koreatown is comprised of retail stores and family restaurants catering to younger Koreans and those living in the north part of the City of Toronto and York Region. A larger proportion of this neighbourhood are recent immigrants or visa students from South Korea.