Chinatowns in Canada

Chinatowns in Canada generally exist in the large cities of Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Montreal. Canada had about 25 Chinatowns across the country between the 1930s to 1940s, some of which have ceased to exist. The Chinese Canadian community is the largest ethnic group of Asian Canadians, consisting approximately 40% of the Asian Canadian population. Most of them are concentrated within the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. Greater Toronto Area (537,060), Greater Vancouver (402,000), Greater Montreal (120,000) Calgary Region (75,410), and the Edmonton Capital Region (53,670) Vancouver is Canada's largest Chinatown, with about 1.3 million people as of 2006. Victoria, British Columbia is the oldest Chinese-active place for the nineteenth century. Lethbridge, Alberta has the remains of a once thriving Chinatown. Calgary's original Chinatown was little more than a handful of "Chinese and Western" restaurants in the same area, without the historic Chinese-ethnic residential-commercial quality of more historic Chinatowns like those in Vancouver and Victoria.