Bangkok China Town in Thailand
The largest outside of China Chinatown is a bustling, crowded area where you
can buy just about anything day or night.
The main thoroughfare through Chinatown is Yaowarat Road, which is approximately
1.5 kilometres in length. It was built during the reign of King Rama V. On each
side of the road, there is a network of streets and alleys lined with shops
selling all sorts of things. In many of these streets, you’ll find shops side
by side selling the same items.
There is an old fresh food market called Trok Isarnuphap where leading chefs
from all over Bangkok shop for the finest and freshest ingredients for their
restaurant menus.
A visit at night will
take you to a food street where you sit on stools watching your meal being
prepared, then enjoying the delicious cuisine washed down by tea or a cold beer
which carry on until midnight. 
I stay in Bangkok. I am a Thai and Chinese. So I like to
visit Yaowarat Road or china town known for foreigners. This street was named.
Gold Street because many gold shop. And is the source of many good Chinese
restaurants. A variety of both cheap and expensive prices vary. And a source
selling many imported from China. After that I enjoy eating and shopping, I
worship holy thing to the Chinese as various Chinese temples here first. My day
on this road to happiness with me. It can watch the beautiful art of Chinese
culture. To taste delicious food. Have much shopping.
History
Yaowarat is one of the oldest
Chinese communities in Thailand. The story of the Chinese in Bangkok starts in
the late 1700s, when poor peasants from China's Chaozhou region (in Eastern Guangdong) moved to the Grand Palace area
in Rattanakosin. They came to Siam to
find work in Thonburi at the other side
of the Chao Phraya River (which at that time was the capital of the country).
The Chinese were requested to move outside the city walls when King Rama I set
up his new capital in the Grand Palace area in 1782.
The new Chinese neighbourhood,
nowadays named after Yaowarat Road, became Bangkok's main centre of commerce
for the following two centuries. Formerly impoverished peasants worked their
way up to become the backbone of trade in Siam. It also became known as a seedy
area thriving on brothels, gambling houses and opium dens, though these
activities are illegal nowadays and no longer to be found in the district. The
business centre of the district moved from Sampeng Lane to Yaowarat Road and
Charoen Krung Road in 1891, when those roads were built by a decree of King
Rama V.
A few years later a fire broke out,
which opened the way for the construction of Phahurat Road in 1898. King Rama V
named it after his daughter Phahurat Maneemai, in remembrance of her early
death at the age of ten. The area used to be an enclave of Vietnamese
immigrants, who had lived here since the reign of King Taksin in the late
eighteenth century. Construction of the road made way for the Indian community
to move in and since then, this neighbourhood evolved its own South Asian
character that persists today.
As Thailand became one of Asia's
emerging economies, the commercial core moved from Yaowarat and Phahurat to the
Siam Square area. However, this
multicultural district still shows what commercial Bangkok has been like for
almost two decades.
Understand
Compared to the rest of the city, this district is fairly compact and can
best be explored in a full-day (and night) walking tour. You'll come across
street markets, shop houses, gold shops, beautiful remnants of colonial-style
architecture and some interesting temples. Instead of tramping from temple to
temple, this neighbourhood is mostly about catching a brief peek into
commercial Bangkok as it has been the last two centuries. Rushing through won't
be rewarding—take your time instead, sitting at a plastic chair and watching
local traders sell their wares. As the street markets are not targeted to foreigners,
you will find a wide array of products: ceramics, fabrics, gold, tacky teenager
ware, ant-killer chalk, Bollywood movies, ginseng roots. Who knows what you'll
end up with at the end of the day. It is best to come during weekdays, as many
stores close during the weekends. Also keep in mind that most shops close at
17:00 after which most of the area gets pretty much deserted (Yaowarat Road
being a noteworthy exception).
Orientation
Orientation in Yaowarat is even trickier than elsewhere in Bangkok. The area
is filled with narrow alleys and obscure pedestrian-only routes, and is crossed
by a few giant roads that feel like small highways. Finding your way around
isn't made easy as road signs are blocked by the bulk of neon-signs and other
merchandise that sellers hang up to attract customers. The perfect map for the
district still has to be created, so adapt to the situation and expect to get
lost often. Also take note that alleys often bear the name trok instead
of the usual soi, and that many have multiple names attached to them.
For example, Trok Issaranuphap is often signposted as Soi Issaranuphap or as
Soi 16, while Soi Phadung Dao is also known as Soi Texas.
Yaowarat is centred, as could be expected, around Yaowarat Road, a
big road bursting with neon signs. North of it is Charoen Krung Road,
which is also one of Bangkok's major traffic arteries. Running parallel to the
south of Yaowarat Road is Sampeng Lane, which is also known as Soi Wanit
1, a narrow pedestrian-only lane with many small department stores. Crossing
these three streets is the pedestrian-only Trok Issaranuphap, another
interesting lane for shopping and having small snacks. Another small lane
crossing Yaowarat Road is Soi Phadung Dao, and that's the place to go
when you're about to get hungry.
