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Experience

MAIN ATTRACTIONS

Explore the rich culture embedded in Chinatown and its community. Discover your zodiac on the sidewalks, take a Chinese painting class, learn about Chinese calligraphy, visit the murals, and take pictures at our infamous Arch!

Royal Arch

Centrally located at the on Somerset Street West and Cambridge Street, our Imperial style arch welcomes everyone to Chinatown.

Chinatown Murals

Take a fascinating mural tour! Strolling across Chinatown, you’ll notice bright pops of colour on windows, doors and walls.

Chinatown Vibes

Embrace the wonderful Chinatown experience and Chinese cultural performance in your community.

Night Market

Our Night Market has been celebrated as not only an Asian food and culture festival, but a weekend of diversity and inclusiveness. 

Chinatown Bazaar

Our Night Market has been celebrated as not only an Asian food and culture festival, but a weekend of diversity and inclusiveness. 

Chinatown lucky signs

Bring Luck Home

Luck, Abundance, Longevity, Happiness and Good Fortune are known to be the basic and modest wishes in the lives of ordinary people in Chinese culture. These five characters in calligraphy are an artistic expression of the blessings received by those who touch them.

Canada – the adopted home for many immigrants – is a country where abundance, luck, happiness, wealth, and stability abound and with which many of us are blessed. We wish for all Canadians to embrace and enjoy, Luck, Abundance, Longevity, Happiness, and Good Fortune forever. 

Find the signs under the Chinatown Gateway on Somerset Street West. Sahre you photos, use the hashtag #chinatownottawa. 

Chinese Painting & Calligraphy

Learn one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world by taking a Chinese painting class in Chinatown. Chinese painting and calligraphy distinguish themselves from other cultures’ arts by emphasis on motion and change with dynamic life. It is believed that by practicing them helps one to maintain mindfulness and maintain calmness in life.

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Find Your Chinese Zodiac Sign

The Chinese Zodiac is based on a twelve-year cycle, each year in that cycle related to an animal sign. It is popular in several East Asian countries, including China, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan.

In Chinatown, these zodiacs are imbedded into the sidewalks. Come and find them and learn about what your zodiac means.

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CONNECT WITH US

Somerset Street Chinatown BIA

5-299 Bronson Ave. Ottawa, Ontario K1R 6J1

(613) 230-4707

info@ottawachinatown.ca