Sydney Chinatown

Sydney ’s Chinatown is located within the southern central business district of the City of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia, in the Haymarket area between Central Station and Darling Harbour.

The current area is the third in Sydney to be known as Chinatown: in the late 19th century, it was located in the Rocks area of Sydney, it later moved to the area near Market Street at Darling Harbour and finally, by the 1920s, it had began to be established in its current location.

The 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 tree stump; named Golden Water Mouth, it is said to bring good fortune to the Chinese community.

At the southern side of Chinatown, next to Hay Street, a large complex (Market City) has recently been built incorporating the walls retained from the site’s previously existing produce markets. It contains a modern shopping centre, restaurants, boutique shops, a cinema complex, and a Friday-to-Sunday flea market known as Paddy’s Market, as well as a large residential tower.

Unlike the Chinatowns in some other countries, Sydney’s Chinatown has been relatively free of crime and hygiene issues, and is a major tourist attraction in Sydney. 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.

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.