Barrio Chino

Buenos Aires' Chinatown, locally known as Barrio chino, is a largely commercial section about five blocks long in the barrio of Belgrano, Buenos Aires. The Asian community living in Belgrano is less than 0.5% of the ward's total. Despite the designation of this Belgrano enclave as a Chinese ethnic enclave, the area is populated by different Asian communities, with a predominance of Taiwanese people and, to a lesser extent, Japanese and Thais.OverviewThis neighbourhood contains several Chinese restaurants, grocery stores, and a Buddhist temple. It is the core centre of the Chinese community in Argentina. The neighbourhood began to develop in the 1980s when newly arrived Taiwanese and mainland Chinese immigrants settled in this area.The neighbourhood is also known for its celebration of the Chinese New Year. On January 22 the streets of South Belgrano dress up in bright red and golden yellow, as dragon-like puppets and chariots run through the streets undulating and waving to the rhythm of traditional Chinese music.A proposal for the creation of Chinatown as an official barrio of Buenos Aires was promoted by a group of Asian businessmen for commercial purposes in 2006. The requested designation was without success, however, because "Chinatown" didn't reflect the real population structure of Belgrano, which is populated overwhelmingly by people who are not Asian in origin but European.