Chinatown, Los Angeles

Chinatown is a neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles, California that became a commercial center for Chinese and other Asian businesses in Central Los Angeles in 1938. The area includes restaurants, shops and art galleries but also has a residential neighborhood with a low-income, aging population of about 20,000 residents.

The original Chinatown developed in the late 19th century, but it was demolished to make room for Union Station, the city's major ground-transportation center. A separate commercial center, known as "New Chinatown," opened for business in 1938.

Street and natural limits of the Chinatown neighborhood are: north, Beaudry Avenue, Stadium Way, North Broadway; east, the Los Angeles River; and southwest, Cesar Chavez Avenue. Chinatown beyond the concentrated business center is flanked by the Elysian Park to the north, Lincoln Heights to the east, Downtown to the south and southwest and Echo Park to the west and northwest.

There are two schools and a branch library in Chinatown, as well as a city park and a state park. Many motion pictures have been filmed in the area.