Bangkok’s Chinatown

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history of bangkok's chinatown

What's new!

Delicious food you should try

“Banner” is the name of our group from

the initials of our names. B is from Book, A is

from Ang, and lastly, N is from Nat. We are

studying in our second year in the Faculty of

Engineering at King Mongkut’s University of

Technology Thonburi. Each of us is Thai-

Chinese, but we can’t speak Chinese at all. We

don’t know why we just told you that. sD

Have fun tourists!

Hello lovely tourists! You thought right to visit

our e-zine :D. If you come to Bangkok and you don’t know where you should go traveling because Bangkok has so many attraction places, we have the answer for you.

We suggest you visit Yaowarat Road, or Bangkok’s Chinatown, because it’s one of the most popular tourist places in Thailand. It is as old as Bangkok, so you may feel like you have been transported back in time. No tourist should miss visiting Chinatown when coming to Bangkok. We had an idea to publish this e-zine to show how interesting Bangkok’s Chinatown is, and we feel sure it will be useful for tourists.

Firstly, we will tell you about the history of Yaowarat Road. This part was written by Book using details he collected from Thai websites. His column has many stories about this famous road, from the past up to the present, such as how it became Yaowarat Road, and also outstanding and unique stories about many historical places.

Next in our e-zine, Nat presents some traditions in Bangkok’s Chinatown. Many traditions, such as vegetarian- ism and the Chinese New Year, are celebrated in Chinatown. In this column we show you the meaning of each tradition, what you can or should do, and what not to do. For vegetarianism, we present the benefits of this diet, details of particular foods, and so on. This festival is held in October each year. Nat’s column also shows you how beautiful and interesting the Chinese New Year is in Chinatown.

Finally, Ang presents for you Chinese ways of life in her culture column. She writes about what the real Chinese do in Chinatown, in terms of food, beverages and places. She also has recommendations about some interesting meals and a temple in Yaowarat that you shouldn’t miss. Try doing, going to, or eating, all of these things!

Tourists in Yaowarat are normally always ready to eat because of the varieties of foods along its sidewalks. It’s sure that every tourist would like to try eating the delicious food in Chinatown. Just flip these pages and… Enjoy!

h

At rst, this road was named Yupparat Road [1]. After that, King Rama V was kind enough to give it the name Yaowarat – which means “little king” – for his heir apparent’s glorication. He was Siam Crown Prince Somdej Phra Brom Orasa Thirat Chao Fah Maha Chirunnatid [1], the First Siam Crown Prince. First Siam Crown Prince. It took eight years to build Yaowarat Road, in spite of it having a length of only 1410m. Starting from the canal which sur-rounded the old city, the road continued opposite Mahachai Fortress, going south to converge on Chakkawat Road, where Wattuk Square is today. It passed Ratcha-wong Road and converged on Chareonk-rung Road before Trimit Temple.

’“”’’’

Tip:Chinese play in Yaowarat was most popular in 2495 - 2505 B.E.

Many attra

ctive place

s

During the Rattanakosin period (1782

– present), many Chinese traders came to Thailand to make trade and they found a suitable road to sell goods, which was called Yaowarat (or Dragon). This area in and around Yaowarat Road has become knowndasvBangkok’svChinatown.

Chinatown in the Samphanthawong

district of Bangkok has one kilometer that is full of shops and vendors selling many varieties of delicious foods and beverages. It is like a little land of China. Thus, the ways of life in this area are different from those of other ethnic groups in terms of foods and beverages and also in characteristic places such as temples.

Culture

When the word ‘Chinese’ is heard, most people

may think of Chinese foods. It is mostly in the forms of

noodles; it is believed that China is the origin of them.

So, before visiting Bangkok’s Chinatown or Chinese

restaurants, you should practice your skill in using chop

sticks\skillfully.

Chinese food has eight cuisines, but the best known are these

four: Sichuan, Guangdong (Kwangtung or Cantonese), Shandong and

Jiangsu. Each of these regions varies in resources, climate, geography,

history, cooking techniques and lifestyle. However, some dishes always

taste hot like a pepper, such as Gao Lao (or Chinese clear soup with

boiled entrails and vegetables) [1]. Chinese foods are very popular all over

the world. There are lots of recipes. Most take much time to prepare. For

instance: pork baby spare ribs with shitakes, takes at least six hours on

the stove so they are tender. It takes at least two hours

tohsteampthempandpatpleastponephourptopsimmerpthepsoup.

While having a Chinese meal, you should have a Chinese beverage that is known as herb tea. This tastes lightly sweet or bitter and the color is always black or dark brown, depending on what herbs are used. Most herbs are from Guangdong because its landscape is suitable and the climate is primarily hot. Chinese tea can be drunk hot or cold. All of them are called “cooling tea” meaning a medicinal herbal drink and consumed to relieve a variety of diseases [2]. For example, chrysanthemum tea, made from yellow flowers, is consumed to recover from influenza or to treat acne [3]. The other Chinese beverage, that is popular, is Jiu (or wine). It is an alcoholic beverage made from fermenting or distilling rice or fruit. Fermented beverages are called HuangJiu or ChouJiu and Distilled beverages are called BaiJiu. Both of them are made from rice or wheat and always consumed together with food. The others are called GouQiJiu which are made from fruits. All of them are commonly mixed with additives of medicinal herbs and spices [4].

[1]. Wikipedia (n.d.) Chinese cuisine. Accessed January 12, 2011, from

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_cuisine

clawed dragons called Mang. Their scales tell what kind of dragons they are, for example, on Chiao, most of the scales are green [5].

After being satisfied from eating and drinking, let’s go and visit Chinese places such as temples. Chinese temples are always red to bring them good luck and long happiness. They are decorated with dragons because these are the symbol of the powerful goddess animal. They are typically sketched as long, scaled, sinuous creatures with four legs. They are named differently such as, five-clawed dragons called Long and four-

[2]. Wikipedia (n.d.) Chinese herb tea. Accessed January 12, 2011, from

www.ask.com/wiki/Chinese_herb_tea

[3]. Choudhury, A. D. (2010) Chrysanthemum Tea Benefits. Accessed January 12,

2011, from www.buzzle.com/ articles/chrysanthemum-tea-benefits.html

[4]. Wikipedia (n.d.) Chinese alcoholic beverages. Accessed January 12, 2011, from

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Chinese_alcoholic_beverages

[5]. Botsford, J.D. (2009) Chinese Dragon: A powerful Metaphor in Chinese

Culture History. Accessed January 13, 2011, from

resources.primarysource.org/content.php?pid=55421&sid=405916

In conclusion, the Chinese ways of life are very interesting and attractive in terms of foods, beverages and also temples. Their foods and beverages are often hot in taste and some have herbs. Their temples are red and have some dragons. Lots of people always come to make merit and pray for a better life. All these three things are easily seen in Bangkok’s Chinatown which is full of shops and vendors selling goods.

‘Gao Lao Moo Tun’ menu is most popular.

Its taste is hot like a pepper as Chinese people

like. In this bowl is a delicious mix which includes

pork, pork tendons, pork balls and vegetables. All

of them are stewed for a long time until they are

very soft. Chopped corridor leaves

are put on the top when it is

served.

“The pork can melt in your mount :D”.

Don’t blame me that I’m bragful. I really mean it.

It’s absolutely awesome! Go and try eating it;

trust me.

Recommend zone

^^

This bowl includes five sweet

Siamese rice dumplings which have

sesame paste inside, and milk. You can

eat it hot or cold depending on what you

prefer. When biting into them with milk, you

firstly taste the sweet sesame and thin-

gained sticky rice that is in divisibly mixed

with milk.

“The advantage of sesame is to help

reducing cholesterol, so it is anti- heart

disease. Moreover, it has the essential

vitamins and minerals especially

calcium, vitamin B and vitamin A

which are good for the nervous system

and are anti-cancer.”muslimthai.com

Pae Kuoy or ginkgo

biloba is a kind of plant.

It is believed that it is an

elixir which can increase

the efficiency of blood

circulation to the brain or

may reduce Alzheimer’s

disease.

Wat Mangkorn Kamalawat or Wat Leng

Noei Yi means dragons. It opens 6 am to 9

pm depending on occasions. It is always full

of people who like to change their bad

fortune through a ceremony or make merit

for good luck. It has many dragons inside

and also the gods such as Towkuwenmaha-

rad (Wessuwun) who holds up the pagoda.

http://www.lengnoeiyi.com

Bkk’s Chinatown

has many temples

:D

First INC KMUTT (20)

I wanna go

eating

something.

Let’s go

guys

!!!

Moo

Tun

Imfdd:

D

Ton ENV KMUTT (21) Tip Arc SU (20)

Belt Phy SWU (20) Jay CPE KMUTT (20)

First INC KMUTT (20)

I’m hungry

and ready to

eat.

Although it has

a traffic jam, I still

try to go to have a

meal. lol

miss

it

Pink Engineering CU (20)

Mint PY MU (21) TOP Architect KU (20)

Their ways of life

attract me so much.

I I also do love the Chinese

cuisine. Delicious <3

How to get there

By bus get on lines 1, 4, 7, 7ก, 25, 25 (motorway), 53, 508 (motorway), 508, 21, 49, 73, 73ก, 204, 508, 40, 48, 159, 4, 170, 172.And by MRT go to Hualampong station and get on bus line 4 and air-conditioned bus line 7.

Reference:[6]BMTA(n.d.) BMTA bus routing information. Retrived January 5, 2011 from http://www.bmta.co.th/th/bus_search.php?cat=20&place=%E0%C2%D2%C7% C3%D2%AA&Submit=+++%A4%E9%B9%CB%D2+++[7]BTS(n.d.) จะไปเยาวราชหรือสำเพ็ง ควรนั่งไปยังไง “How to go to Yaowarat and Sampeng” (translated from Thai). Retrived January 5, 2011 from http://www.bts.co.th/th/wbr_view.asp?id=14297 http://www.bts.co.th/th/wbr_view.asp?id=14297