The Chinatown of Havana is located in the municipality of Centro Habana , province of Havana City , in Cuba , making up one of the oldest and largest Chinatowns in Latin America . It came to be considered the second most important in the world, after San Francisco in California , United States . Their small grocery stores and restaurants originated from the accumulation of money their owners made during their years as contract workers. The first Chinese-owned businesses were opened in 1858.
At the end of the 19th century , Chinese immigration settled in what was the knife of Calle Zanja and Calle de los Dragones where, from 1874, they set up shops and spaces dedicated to various services, such as shops, inns, laundries, etc. Chinatown was the main settlement for immigrants from that nation in the Caribbean. At the beginning of the 20th century, some 10,000 Chinese lived in 10 blocks of the neighborhood, and began to open small commercial establishments such as inns, laundries, shoe stores and watch repair shops. Wineries were also opened for the sale of food, such as birds and dried fish, pharmacies, silk shops, shops, restaurants, cinemas and theaters for Asian operatic performances. Chinatown also had a chamber of commerce that functioned as a stock exchange .
After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution , and as a result of the massive exodus of Chinese-Cubans to the United States, the number of pure Chinese in the neighborhood fell sharply and, with them, the popularity of its restaurants. Also in those years the confiscations and nationalizations carried out without the consequent compensation began. The almost 250,000 Chinese and their descendants who lived there left the place.
Havana is also the only Chinese clay that has its own cemetery (Chinese General Cemetery, in Chinese: ? ??? ?). This is located in Nuevo Vedado , near the Cristóbal Colón Necropolis .
In the 1990s the commercial premises were restored and the Chinese New Year and the anniversaries of the arrival of the first immigrants began to be celebrated . Currently, only a very small portion of Chinatown is inhabited by Chinese.
The entrance portico to the neighborhood, inaugurated in 1999, was financed by the government of the People's Republic of China with materials brought from that country. It is called "El Pórtico de la Amistad" and is located on Dragones Street. It is a three-ton concrete structure , 16 meters wide and 12 meters high. Its structure of columns and beams is made of reinforced concrete covered with gray granite , and the roof is made of ceramic tiles enameled in golden color. It is a unique Chinese architectural work in Latin America and one of the largest outside of China.
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