What to know before you go
- 01
The neighborhood has three parts: Chinatown, Japantown and Little Saigon. In the City's words, it's the only place in the continental United States where Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, African American and Vietnamese residents settled together to build one neighborhood.
- 02
Chinatown grew up along King Street after a regrade, finished in 1910, filled the tide flats. Japantown, or Nihonmachi, formed around Main Street just to the north; its businesses vanished when their owners were sent to incarceration camps in World War II.
- 03
Filipino newcomers lived in the neighborhood's hotels while they looked for cannery work and opened cafés, pool halls and barbershops. Black residents opened diners, groceries and nightclubs, and Jackson Street had a famous after-hours jazz scene. Vietnamese refugees arrived in the 1980s and built Little Saigon, around 12th Avenue and South Jackson Street.
- 04
When the Kingdome and I-5 threatened the neighborhood, young activists fought for housing, services and its old buildings. The City created the International Special Review District in 1973 to protect its Asian American character, and the Seattle Chinatown National Register Historic District sits inside it.
- 05
Hing Hay Park, whose name means Celebrate Happiness park, is the heart of Chinatown. Its ornate Grand Pavilion was built in Taipei, the park doubled in size in 2018, and a lantern by George Lee projects "Celebrate Happiness" in many languages.
- 06
Kobe Terrace, up the hill at South Main Street, has a 200-year-old stone lantern of about four tons, a gift from Seattle's sister city of Kobe. Below it, neighbors tend small plots of vegetables, herbs and flowers in the Danny Woo Community Garden, and on a clear day you can look for Mount Rainier.
- 07
The Wing Luke Museum, on South King Street, tells the Asian Pacific American story and runs guided walking tours of the neighborhood. The museum has no café on purpose, so you'll eat in the neighborhood.
- 08
Big neighborhood events include the Lunar New Year celebration, with cultural performances and a food walk, and the CID Night Market of local makers and food vendors.
- 09
International District/Chinatown Station, at 5th Avenue and South Jackson Street, is on the 1 Line with trains straight to the airport, and the First Hill Streetcar stops at 5th and Jackson.
Event dates and the Wing Luke's tours change. Check the neighborhood site and the museum before you go.