# What's the largest city in the world with no Chinese restaurants? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 1, 2014, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075 "2014-07-01T08:21:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/1 "2014-07-01T08:21:28Z")
The Chinese diaspora has spread all over the world, but is there anyplace they’ve avoided? My WAG would be some industrial city in Siberia. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/2 "2014-07-01T08:36:10Z")
Aka, the area next to China? When there are quite a few Chinese immigrients and also natives?:dubious: Sub Saharan Africa maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/3 "2014-07-01T08:45:27Z")
By various accounts I have heard, actual Chinese (as in, you know, in China) restaurants would not be recognizable to Americans, nor would American-style Chinese restaurants nor the cuisine they serve be recognizable in China. (Although I’d guess that major cosmopolitan metropolises like Beijing would have American-style Chinese restaurants now.) China’s a big place, actually, with many local cultures in its many regions, and a plethora of styles of cuisine, many of which would not be widely known. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/4 "2014-07-01T09:07:37Z")
We could argue forever about how authentic the food served in Chinese restaurants in various cities and countries is. That would be a separate thread really. Why don’t we stick to the question in the OP? A city satisfying the question in the OP would have to be one not mentioned in any of the entries below: > **[Chinatowns in Africa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatowns_in_Africa)** > > This article discusses Chinatowns in Africa. There are at least three major Chinatowns in Africa. > As former colonies of Europe, the coastal African nations of Madagascar, Mauritius, and South Africa were the main receiving points of Chinese immigrants from the 1890s to the early part of the 20th century. The early Chinese arrived to labour in the Transvaal gold mines of South Africa and on the Tananrive Tamatave railway of Madagascar. Many of these Chinese immigrants were exploited. > Today, Sout... > **[Chinatowns in the Americas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatowns_in_the_Americas)** > > This article discusses Chinatowns in the Americas, urban areas with a large population of people of Chinese descent. The regions include: Canada, the United States, and Latin America. > Chinatowns in Canada generally exist in the large cities. Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, and Winnipeg have Chinatowns. > Chinatowns have existed in some smaller towns throughout the history of Canada. Prior to 1900, almost all Chinese were located in British Columbia, in towns ... > **[Chinatowns in Asia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatowns_in_Asia)** > > Chinatowns in Asia are widespread with a large concentration of overseas Chinese in East Asia and Southeast Asia and ethnic Chinese whose ancestors came from southern China—particularly the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, and Hainan—and settled in countries such as Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Korea centuries ago—starting as early as the Tang dynasty, but mostly notably in the 17th thro... > **[Chinatowns in Oceania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatowns_in_Oceania)** > > This article discusses Chinatowns in Oceania. > Given its proximity to the Asian continent, Australia has had, and continues to witness, a massive immigration of Chinese and other Asians. As with Canada, the majority of ethnic Chinese immigrants to Australia are from Hong Kong and Canton. Chinese from various places of mainland China, Macau, Taiwan, Korea, Southeast Asia—especially Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Philippines, and Indonesia—and Latin America also settled Australia. > Many early Chinese fr... > **[Chinatowns in Europe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatowns_in_Europe)** > > Urban Chinatowns exist in several major European cities. There is a Chinatown in London, England, as well as major Chinatowns in Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Liverpool. In Paris there are two Chinatowns: one where many Vietnamese – specifically ethnic Chinese refugees from Vietnam – have settled in the Quartier chinois in the 13th arrondissement of Paris which is Europe's largest Chinatown, and the other in Belleville in the northeast of Paris. Berlin, Germany has two Chinatowns, one... > **[Chinatown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatowns_in_the_Middle_East)** > > A Chinatown (Chinese: 唐人街) is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. > The development of most Chinatowns typically resulted from mass migration to an area without any or with very few Chinese residents. Binondo in Manila, established in 1594, is recognized as the world's oldest Chinatown. Notable early examples outside Asia i... ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/5 "2014-07-01T09:16:36Z")
The answer would depend upon on defining how many expatriates it takes to constitute a “diaspora”. I’m assuming there are no Chinese restaurants in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (population in 2008 [according to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addis_Ababa): 3,384,569. Regarding the Chinese presence in Ethiopia, [Wikipedia says](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_people_in_Ethiopia): > [@](#): > > Also in 2007, the first 300 volunteers selected from among 10,000 applicants to a new Chinese government programme arrived in Ethiopia, Seychelles, and Zimbabwe. They would perform a variety of work including teaching Chinese, introducing hospital staff to traditional Chinese medicine, and aiding in poultry farming.[4][5] > > Like in many African countries, the Chinese are seen as keeping to themselves. In 2007, another New York Times report by Howard French on Chinese in Ethiopia noted the “clannish” social interaction of Chinese by citing a communal compound of 200 Chinese workers for Road and Bridge Construction (a Chinese construction company) who ate Chinese food, got health care from a Chinese doctor, and did not interact with outsiders.[1] ---
**Author:** ![nani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58956e/32.png) [@nani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nani)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/6 "2014-07-01T09:24:20Z")
There are lots of little gems serving great Chinese food like you could get in China, in the US. Not just in NYC and SF, either. My guess is going to be Karaganda, Kazakhstan’s 4th largest city with 460,000 people. I am pretty sure there is no specifically Chinese restaurant there, and a quick google search doesn’t turn one up. [Addis Ababa does have at least one Chinese restaurant, actually.](http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293791-d1213295-Reviews-China_Bar_And_Restaurant-Addis_Ababa.html) My friend just told me about eating there on Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/7 "2014-07-01T09:47:59Z")
Basically, (1) “Is there a Chinese restaurant in X?” and (2) “Is there a Chinese diaspora in X?” are distinct questions. There might be an individual, entrepreneuring chef from China who opens a Chinese restaurant in a foreign city where there otherwise is no Chinese community. Besides that, I know several places in my neck of the woods that label themselves “Chinese restaurant” which are actually run by Vietnamese. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/8 "2014-07-01T09:56:56Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > The answer would depend upon on defining how many expatriates it takes to constitute a “diaspora”. I’m assuming there are no Chinese restaurants in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (population in 2008 [according to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addis_Ababa): 3,384,569. > > : You [assumed](http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293791-d1213295-Reviews-China_Bar_And_Restaurant-Addis_Ababa.html) wrong. Very [wrong](http://www.mbendi.com/a_sndmsg/tfacRest_srch.asp?gloc=P54&ftyp=157). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/9 "2014-07-01T10:10:35Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > Besides that, I know several places in my neck of the woods that label themselves “Chinese restaurant” which are actually run by Vietnamese. Hell, I know plenty of very good restaurants here in Tel Aviv run by Israeli Jews. A “Chinese restaurant” is a restaurant serving Chinese cuisine. The ethnicity of the people working there is utterly irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/10 "2014-07-01T10:11:13Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > You [assumed](http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293791-d1213295-Reviews-China_Bar_And_Restaurant-Addis_Ababa.html) wrong. > > Very [wrong](http://www.mbendi.com/a_sndmsg/tfacRest_srch.asp?gloc=P54&ftyp=157). True. But I wonder, though, how authentic some of these places really are. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/11 "2014-07-01T10:23:18Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > By various accounts I have heard, actual Chinese (as in, you know, in China) restaurants would not be recognizable to Americans, nor would American-style Chinese restaurants nor the cuisine they serve be recognizable in China. Wait a second, so you’re telling me that authentic Chinese food doesn’t include French fries and fried mozzerella sticks? I am shocked, SHOCKED to hear that. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/12 "2014-07-01T11:14:06Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Hell, I know plenty of very good restaurants here in Tel Aviv run by Israeli Jews. A “Chinese restaurant” is a restaurant serving Chinese cuisine. The ethnicity of the people working there is utterly irrelevant. Yes, but the way I understood the OP’s question was that it somewhat implied the Chinese restaurant had to be run by people from China. [Seinfeld - Chinese mailman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnAam9Hozwk) ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/13 "2014-07-01T11:27:38Z")
I would look to places where Chinese are, or were, despised. Little railroad town up in the high desert has a restaurant. On the side of the restaurant is a large sign clearly stating “All white help”. It doesn’t serve Chinese food, they don’t even serve Chinese people. Chinese people aren’t allowed anywhere near this little town. It’s a legacy from the railroad building era, when the Chinese came over to work harder and cheaper than white people. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/14 "2014-07-01T11:32:17Z")
> [@nani](#): > > My guess is going to be Karaganda, Kazakhstan’s 4th largest city with 460,000 people. A.K.A. that country bordering China? My guess would be where there are relatively large communities of Quechua and Aymará Indians in the Andes, but relatively free of outside influence. (Or does any such place exist anymore?) Or perhaps the second-biggest city in Nunavut or Botswana. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/15 "2014-07-01T11:42:21Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Or perhaps the second-biggest city in Nunavut or Botswana. There are at least two Chinese places in Francistown, Botswana - Mr Chang and Calabash. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/16 "2014-07-01T11:44:18Z")
Shanghai. There, they are just called “restaurants.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/17 "2014-07-01T11:47:41Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > By various accounts I have heard, actual Chinese (as in, you know, in China) restaurants would not be recognizable to Americans, nor would American-style Chinese restaurants nor the cuisine they serve be recognizable in China. (Although I’d guess that major cosmopolitan metropolises like Beijing would have American-style Chinese restaurants now.) > > China’s a big place, actually, with many local cultures in its many regions, and a plethora of styles of cuisine, many of which would not be widely known. This happens with other ethnic themed restaurants. Here in the UK we have a massive market for Indian takeaways and restaurants. Except the Indian food served here is of the Anglicised variety. I dont just mean French fries and stuff, but the types and amounts of spices used are often vastly different to your traditional Indian fare. I dont know if this Anglicized food would be unrecognisable to your average Indian, but that there is an Anglicised twist to such establishments. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/18 "2014-07-01T12:14:08Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Or perhaps the second-biggest city in Nunavut or Botswana. AFAICT, there are no Chinese restaurants in the entire province of Nunavut. It’s 20% of Canada! [sub]The fact that there are only 30,000 people spread out over 750,000 square miles might have something to do with it[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/19 "2014-07-01T12:21:23Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > By various accounts I have heard, actual Chinese (as in, you know, in China) restaurants would not be recognizable to Americans, nor would American-style Chinese restaurants nor the cuisine they serve be recognizable in China. (Although I’d guess that major cosmopolitan metropolises like Beijing would have American-style Chinese restaurants now.) > > China’s a big place, actually, with many local cultures in its many regions, and a plethora of styles of cuisine, many of which would not be widely known. That depends quite a bit on the Chinese restaurant you go to. There are a ton of very authentic Chinese restaurants in Chicago. Many in Chinatown will specialize in a particular regional cuisine and I know people from those regions who say it’s very close to what they ate at home. Now if you’re eating at the one Chinese buffet in some small town I have no problem believing that the proprietor, while possibly Chinese and capable of producing accurate Chinese food, decided to alter the menu to American expectations. In fact, even in a lot of the Chinese restaurants in Chicago’s Chinatown they’ll try to steer you away from some of the menu items saying “you won’t like that”. 😃 You need to go several times until they recognize you and you and sort of earn their trust. It’s a funny kind of relationship. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075/20 "2014-07-01T12:36:38Z")
Is there any wartime food rationing somewhere that prohibits the operation of restaurants? Aleppo? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-largest-city-in-the-world-with-no-chinese-restaurants/692075.md?page=2)