A Chinatown is a region outside of China where a large number of people of Chinese origin live. There are Chinatowns in many different countries and regions of the world. One of the most famous and largest ones is Chinatown, San Francisco. Many Chinatowns are centers of shopping and tourism in addition to being residential communities. Chinatown can also refer to the movie Chinatown, directed by Roman Polanski.

In the United States, Chinatowns started forming in northern California and Hawaii with the arrival or large number of immigrants in the mid-1800s. They continued to expand through the 1900s as the number of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. continued to increase. Some U.S. cities that have Chinatowns besides San Francisco include Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City, which has several. Chinatowns also exist in Europe, Canada and Asia. The formation of the first Chinatowns in the United States were the result of local regulations that restricted where Chinese people could live, what types of professions they could take on and whom they could marry.http://www.asian-nation.org/enclaves.shtml