Itinerary: Chinatown

While the largest Chinese neighborhoods in L.A. County are in the San Gabriel Valley, Chinatown in downtown Los Angeles is part ethnic neighborhood, part faded tourist attraction.

L.A.’s first Chinatown was decidedly more gritty. It grew up around a little street called Calle de los Negros (or Negro Alley) starting about 1860 when hundreds, then thousands, of mostly male immigrants came to California to work on the railroads. The area was something of a red light district, and the site of the Chinese Massacre in 1871, in which 19 men and boys were killed by a white mob.

That area was cleared in the 1930s to construct Union Station, and a new Chinatown developed at the present site--north of Cesar Chavez Avenue and east of the Pasadena Freeway--starting about 1940.

Friday

Get to the Golden Dragon Restaurant (960 N. Broadway. [323] 721-0774) Friday for lunch or dinner and enjoy the lively China Night show, a cultural and culinary experience all in one. At 11:30 a.m. there’s a dim sum brunch, or at 6:30 p.m. a nine-course dinner. Each is complemented by dancers, acrobats, martial arts, music and a comedy and magic show. The whole thing costs $42 per person, $28 for ages 12 and younger.

Saturday

If you want a guided tour, call today for reservations for the Los Angeles Chinatown Tour (960 N. Broadway, Suite E, [323] 721-0774), which starts at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

Otherwise, explore on your own the different Chinatowns for shopping purposes. Broadway, near Alpine Street, has fresh--as in still alive--fish and poultry shops lining both sides of the street. A little farther north are bakeries and other markets.

The plaza, with its fancy neon gate at Broadway and Lei Min Way, is more for tourists. Import and gift shops offer jade trinkets, paper lanterns, good luck bamboo plants, acupuncture charts.

On Hill Street, you’ll pass pharmacies selling herbs and traditional medicines. Keep an eye out for Ten Ren Tea Co. (726 N. Hill St.), where they sell remarkable tea pots, as well as tea and ginseng in bulk. Next door is Oriental Palace, a Chinese restaurant supply store, perfect if you need a wok big enough to wash your dog in.

Sunday

Put your name in early for a table at the Empress Pavilion (Bamboo Plaza, 2nd level, 988 N. Hill St., [213] 617-9898). Chances are there’s going to be a wait if you get there any time after 10 a.m.

While you’re waiting, take the elevator up to the very top of Bamboo Plaza parking structure, which is above the plaza. You’ll have to climb a set of stairs to get to the very top. To the south is a view of all the ornate rooftops of Chinatown, with the skyscrapers of downtown looming on the horizon.

At Empress Pavilion’s Sunday dim sum brunch, prepare for a feast, where the small dishes are served from rolling carts pushed table to table. Just point and be served all types of rolls, dumplings, pot stickers and barbecued meats.

Afterward, walk off some of the meal by strolling up to the Chinatown Heritage and Visitors Center (411 and 415 Bernard St., open Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.), two small Victorian-era houses that feature photographs and artifacts from the old Chinatown.

Since the 1970s, much of the Chinese population moved east to cities such as Monterey Park and Alhambra. The exhibit “Chinese Americans in the San Gabriel Valley” examines the lives of recent immigrants and longtime Californians in that area. It’s open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Evergreen Art Gallery (760 W. Garvey Ave., Monterey Park, [626] 576-7018).