Barrio Chino / BAH-ree-o CHEE-no
Until you get there, I think it’s hard to comprehend the scope and scale of Mexico City, and maybe a little hard to think of it as anything other than taco stands and margarita bars. But the reality is that Mexico City is bigger in both size and population than either New York or Los Angeles, and is an actual metropolitan area and not just some beach town. It has skyscrapers, a subway system, and a varied population. So this means it also has its own immigration history and its own ethnic neighborhoods. Europeans, Middle Easterners, and even the Chinese have all come to Mexico City and stamped their own identity onto parts of the city.
Just to the east of the Zocalo and south of Alameda Park is Mexico’s own Chinatown, or Barrio Chino.
The Chinese presence started in the late 1800s when Mexico was working to modernize and expand its railway system, and grew up until the 1930s, when Mexico actually attempted to expel the ethnic Chinese from the city. Today, Barrio Chino is only about two square blocks, but is still a home for a handful of traditional Chinese shops and restaurants (albeit mostly staffed by Mexicans).