Chinatown, Brisbane

Chinatown is a precinct in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. Chinatown mall is a major destination for Brisbane residents and tourists. Since opening, it has become a significant landmark in Brisbane and a recognizable focus for Chinese social and commercial activity.

Cultural hub

With its diversity of business concerns, Chinatown caters towards all members of the public. Centered on a pedestrian mall in Duncan Street (one block from the Brunswick Street mall), it is a successful area, acting as Brisbane’s hub of Asian commercial and cultural activity. To emphasis the cultural success, significance and integration of the area, streets are signed in both Chinese characters and English. There are a wide range of multicultural stores, restaurants and yum cha palaces offering many delightful Asian delicacies. Chinatown mall is also a place of year-round activity hosting festivals, events, touring musicians and dance troupes from Asia.

Now, many Chinese-Australian residents including people from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and China have started to drift away from Chinatown and settle around the favourable Feng shui Sunnybank area located south of the CBD. Sunnybank has one of the highest concentrations of Asian-Australians in Australia and many Asian restaurants, shops and businesses are located there. Early Chinese settlement in Sunnybank is remembered with the local Jock Hing Park.

History

The Chinatown Mall in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia prior to extensive renovations.

Chinatown was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of Brisbane Sallyanne Atkinson on Thursday, 29 January 1987 – the first day of Chinese New Year of the Rabbit. Designed by three Chinese architects and three engineers from Guangzhou in China’s Guangdong province and incorporating ornamental structures reflecting China’s ancient Tang Dynasty, Chinatown Mall was regarded as the most authentic in Australia, until it was redeveloped in 2010.

Although Chinatown officially started off as a mall between Wickham and Ann Streets, many Chinese businesses have spread through-out the suburb. Brisbane's Chinatown now stretches from Alfred Street to McLachlan Street, and Gipps Street to Constance St.

In 1996, the mall was used in a scene in the movie Jackie Chan's First Strike. The scene featured a car chase though a shopping mall resulting in an elaborate stunt where by a car smashed though a second floor window into the pagoda thus resulting in a massive explosion. The destroyed pagoda was subsequently rebuilt and remains a feature of Brisbane's Chinatown Mall to this day.

External links

• Brisbane's Chinatown