Walking past the Gate of Harmonious Interest along Fisgard Street in Victoria, British Columbia, the city’s tiny – but mighty – Chinatown opens before me. Shops, restaurants, lanterns… it might only go a block or so, but the effect is outsized. And indeed, that is the biggest takeaway from a visit here to what is Canada’s oldest Chinatown, a place with a history and legacy that far surpasses its geographical footprint.

My first stop is the Chinatown Museum, a small building on Fan Tan Alley (more on that in a moment) that uses its three rooms to try to distill the Chinese Canadian immigrant experience into something meaningful for both the local community and visitors like me. In its third year of existence, the museum is a must-visit for those who want to understand what Chinatown means, and not just experience it through appearance and food.

Charlayne Thornton-Joe, herself the descendent of Chinese immigrants, shows me around, highlighting some of the history of the Chinese community here. The beginnings of Victoria’s Chinese immigration began in 1858, when gold was discovered in British Columbia. Subsequent waves would come to western Canada to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Those initial immigration waves also included people who would go on to found Chinatown as a central business district for the community.

By 1911, Chinatown held more than 3,000 residents, nearly as much as the remainder of downtown Victoria, in its densely populated six blocks. But as Charlayne relates via the museum’s largest room, despite equal populations, Chinese immigrants were not remotely equal. Early Chinese immigrants were required to pay a head tax, something not charged to other immigrant groups. And in 1923, Canada passed the Chinese Immigrant Act, also known as the Exclusion Act.

The Exclusion Act basically carved out exceptions from Canada’s rights as they related to Chinese immigrants and their Canadian-born descendants. First off, the law practically put a stop to Chinese immigration (and some other Asian countries). As for those already in Canada, they were denied any pathway to citizenship. And even more, so were their locally born descendants.

On the wall of the Chinatown Museum are copies of documents that Chinese Canadians were required to show, acknowledging their lack of rights. I can only imagine the humiliation and anger at being singled out in such a cruel way, especially for a group that did so much to build western Canada.

The Exclusion Act was repealed in 1947, though discrimination against Chinese Canadians continued. In 2014, the government of British Columbia officially apologized to the community, and a monument was placed near the gate to commemorate that.

Outside the museum, Chinatown today is much smaller than the prior version at its peak. It consists mainly of two blocks, centered on Fisgard Street, and a couple small alleys. The aforementioned Fan Tan Alley (named for a game called fan tan that was once common here) is billed as the narrowest commercial street, with a portion of it barely being wide enough to walk through single file.

Visitors will find quite a few cool shops and restaurants here, though, the majority of which are still Chinese owned, despite the fact that the Chinese community of Victoria (which comprises about 4.5% of the metro area population) has largely relocated. Check out Don Mee for dim sum, and to pay tribute to the restaurant that so many members of this community once worked in over the decades.

I can personally attest to the quality of the dumplings at Don Mee.

Or visit Silk Road for perhaps the best collection of loose leaf (and some bags) teas I’ve ever encountered.

But as with most places, the highlight is just a fairly rapid stroll through a historic place. Admire the decorations. Poke your head into a few shops. Learn at the Chinatown Museum. Honor a community that was treated so poorly for so long, but has continued to persevere and to thrive. There is a reason that this tiny Chinatown here in Victoria is a national monument!

In all, depending on how many places one wishes to eat, a visit to Victoria’s Chinatown is a half-day activity at most. But it is a rewarding one.

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