Things to Do in Old Town Chinatown

Old Town Chinatown spills northeast of Burnside, red paper lanterns swaying above brickwork washed in tired gold and jade. The air carries roasted duck, incense drifting from the Buddhist temple on NW 3rd, and the iron bite of streetcar tracks that still gleam between old cobblestones. This is Portland's first neighborhood, laid down by nineteenth-century Chinese laborers and still the thickest cluster of Asian businesses between Seattle and San Francisco. Morning slips through the Chinatown gates and lands on elderly men tracing tai chi in the plaza, slow arms cutting across murals of dragons and history. By lunch, the mood flips: food trucks choke NW 4th, steam curling from stacked bao while cleavers rap against butcher blocks inside open kitchen doors. The grid feels tight and deliberate, everything you need sits inside these few blocks, from herb shops where dried leaves whisper in glass jars to dim sum halls that have fed the same clans for three generations.

Old Town Chinatown is small enough to crisscross on foot, end to end in ten minutes. MAX Blue and Red lines halt at Old Town/Chinatown station, planting you at the gates. Curb meters fill fast at lunch. The Smart Park garage at NW 3rd and Davis undercuts them for longer stops. TriMet buses 4, 8, and 16 roll through. But once you arrive, everything sits inside a three-block radius.