When I moved to Atlanta in 2010, I assumed a city of this size had a designated Chinatown and went in search of it. Instead of the walkable district with elaborate archways and lion statues, I was led to a shopping center in Chamblee aptly named Chinatown Plaza. I came to find that, even though Atlanta does not have a centralized Chinatown in the traditional sense, it made up the difference with strip malls, plazas and food courts.
Despite the name, not all Chinatowns are limited to Chinese shops and restaurants; ethnic enclaves consisting of any range of Asian businesses could fall under the umbrella. In Chamblee, these enclaves of Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese and other cultures expanded into ethnoburbs along the Buford Highway corridor to areas like Duluth and Johns Creek.
Since 2000, the foreign-born Asian population has more than doubled in the 11-country region around Atlanta, nearing 285,811 at last count in 2023, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission. That’s a growth rate more than 50% faster than the general population. Despite having no official Chinatown, Koreatown, Little India, or Little Saigon designation, these areas have been thriving, offering so many new restaurants it’s hard to keep up…