Chinatown, Armour Square

Chinatown is a rich tapestry of restaurants, businesses and shops, and home to much of the city's Chinese-American population. Currently the fourth largest Chinatown in the United States, a visit to this unique neighborhood is to experience a whole different world without ever leaving Chicago. Chinatown is a part of the Armour Square community area, which encompasses its namesake park and U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox baseball team.

Chinatown/Armour Square: Home to Chicago’s Chinatown and the Chicago White Sox 

Written by Alan Solomon, with research assistance from the Chicago Neighborhood Tourism Project.

Chicago's Chinatown, a neighborhood within the Armour Square community, is home to nearly 15,000 ethnic Chinese and almost as many restaurants -- not all of them Chinese.

Armour Square is also home of the Chicago White Sox.

Interestingly, the Chinese and the White Sox arrived in Armour Square around the same time.

Chicago's original Chinatown was established in the late 1870s in the area of Van Buren and Clark Streets in the Loop, populated by immigrants who helped build railroads and mine gold. Around 1905, there was a shift southward to what would become today's Chinatown, near Wentworth Avenue and 22nd Street (now Cermak Road).

In 1905, the White Sox were in their fifth season as members of the new American League. Right field at South Side Park was along Wentworth, about two miles due south of Chinatown.

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