Chinatowns in the United States

Chinatown
Chinese	唐人街
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Tángrénjiē
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	中國城
Simplified Chinese	中国城
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguóchéng
Second alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	華埠
Simplified Chinese	华埠
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Huábù

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Tángrénjiē

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Zhōngguóchéng

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Huábù

This article contains a list of the Chinatowns, which are either officially designated neighborhoods or historically important in the United States. Historically speaking, many of these Chinatowns were formed in the 1800s and have served as ethnic enclaves.

Chinatowns in the United States have historically been located in the "big cities" such as New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, and Chicago and existed initially as enclaves that ease transition into the American culture. The earliest Chinatowns tended to be on the west coast while the newer ones are being built in lesser profile cities as opportunities shift. As the migration trends toward returning to China, many Chinatowns, especially smaller ones like the one in Washington DC, begin to lose their initial mission. Today, many urban Chinatowns in the United States are becoming visitor centers rather than serving as the ethnic enclaves they once were, although the rapidly growing satellite New York City Chinatowns in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn on Long Island represent a stark exception to this trend in North America, fueled by continuing robust levels of large-scale immigration from mainland China specifically directed toward New York.

The significant timeline is as follows:

Historically, most Chinatowns started as enclaves of ethnic Chinese people. Many of these Chinatowns have experienced gentrification as the demographics shifted. While some Chinatowns have retained their status as the ethnic Chinese enclave, many of them have lost that status. The cities with the five highest Chinese American populations, with New York City comprising over half of the combined total, according to the 2010 United States Census, were as follows:

Phoenix, Arizona once had a Chinatown that was started in the 1870s and lasted until the 1940s with the general population scattering throughout the city thereafter. Sources from a research project indicated that more than one Chinatown existed in the city of Phoenix, with one around First Street and Madison and a second at First and Adams Street in the present location of the Talking Stick Resort Arena.

Given its relative proximity to East Asia and Southeast Asia, California has the largest number of Chinese among the American states, including the well-known Chinatown in San Francisco, an all-Chinese town of Locke built by Chinese immigrants, and Chinatowns in various cities throughout the state.

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