Jadetown

Settled in the late 19th century by Chinese immigrants, the neighborhood known as Jadetown remains primarily Chinese and retains that unique character and close-knit sense of community today. Chinese writing, art, and architecture abound in Jadetown, and most students learn Chinese languages, culture, and history in addition to the lessons they learn in public school, reflecting residents’ pride in their heritage.
Jadetown is a popular tourist draw, especially during its elaborate Chinese New Year celebration, a spectacle rivaling any held elsewhere in the country. The neighborhood’s famed Jade Arch serves as its official entrance and is a major attraction in its own right, with an especially ubiquitous presence on Emerald City postcards. Tourists also come for the superb restaurants serving native cuisine, or the unique markets and shops.
Despite its many visitors, much of Jadetown remains a mystery to outsiders, and few of its residents are privy to all its secrets. Among the lesser-known facets of life in Jadetown are the equally exotic but far more illicit attractions, such as heroin, prostitution, and even more unsavory pastimes. Like all criminal activities in Jadetown, these rackets are firmly under the iron-fisted control of the local Triad, The Golden Dragon Society, as they have for over a century—largely in secret.
In contrast to the Society’s very real but invisible rule in the shadows of Jadetown, the secret martial arts masters and enlightened hermetic mystics some outsiders assume to be widespread are few and far between. Simply because the area maintains a traditional Chinese cultural identity, some (usually disappointed) visitors continue to assume life in Jadetown is the stuff of Hong Kong cinematic legend.

History

Through much toil and sacrifice, the Chinese settlers made their little community, dubbed “Jadetown,” viable, and their numbers swelled with new arrivals even after an act of Congress forbade new arrivals from the Middle Kingdom itself. This occurred because, almost unique to Emerald City, the Chinese immigrants were politely ignored rather than actively oppressed—a marked change from their treatment elsewhere. When word of Emerald City’s comparatively welcoming attitude spread, other Chinese immigrants left more hateful settlements and made their way to the City of Destiny, including a few hundred forced out of Seattle due to anti-Chinese sentiment that came to a head in 1886.

Type

Neighbourhood

Location under

Emerald City

Included Locations

• The Golden Dragon House