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Local Landmarks & Heritage

  • Spadina Avenue & Dundas Street West
  • Dragon City Mall
  • Chinatown Centre
  • Kensington Market (adjacent)

Neighborhood History

Chinatown at Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West is the second home of Toronto's Chinese community. The city's first Chinese business, Sam Ching's laundry, opened on Adelaide Street East in the late 1870s, and by the 1920s the original Chinatown had formed along Elizabeth Street between Queen and Dundas. From the late 1950s that first Chinatown was expropriated and demolished to make way for New City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square, which opened in 1965.

Businesses and families moved west to Spadina and Dundas, into what had been a Jewish district, and the neighbourhood grew quickly once immigration restrictions were lifted in the 1960s, drawing newcomers from Hong Kong, Guangdong and Southeast Asia. The Spadina and Dundas intersection remains its heart, with Kensington Market next door.

The Chinatown tee is for the people who rebuilt a community a few blocks west and made it their own — and for everyone who has eaten their way down the avenue since.

MY-NHD

Chinatown - Central Toronto - Unisex Cotton Tee

Chinatown - Central Toronto - Unisex Cotton Tee

$29.95 CAD
$29.95 CAD
Sale Sold out

Toronto's Chinatown has been centred on Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West since the 1950s and 1960s, when the city's first Chinatown on Elizabeth Street was cleared for New City Hall. The community re-established itself a few blocks west and grew with new arrivals from Hong Kong, Guangdong and Southeast Asia.

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