Chinatown Travel Guide

Close by the gentrified blocks of the South Loop neighborhoods, Chinatown - estimated population nine thousand within a narrow ten-block radius - looks much as it did in the mid-1900s. A colorful tile-covered gate at Wentworth and Cermak marks the edge of the district. Once through here you could just as well be in downtown Hong Kong - indeed, some older residents speak no English and rarely pass through the gate to the outer world. More than forty restaurants serve Mandarin, Szechuan, Shanghai and Cantonese cuisine; it's a good place to eat and to poke around the little groceries filled with spices, teas, herbs and vege tables.