Travel to any of the inhabited continents and you will find Chinatowns, historical and contemporary ethnic enclaves of Chinese people outside of mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. While there is no conclusive count as to how many Chinatowns exist, they will often be found in any community with a history of Chinese immigration.

The first Chinatown is considered to be Binondo, a neighborhood in the Philippines’ capital of Manila that developed in 1594. Since then, Chinatowns have developed around the world, most recently with Tijuana, Mexico’s La Mesa neighborhood in 2012.

The United States is home to some of the most famous Chinatowns, including those in San Francisco, New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. That said, for those looking to travel abroad, here is a list of some of the most unique Chinatowns to be found.

1. El Barrio Chino, Havana

*The paifang marking the entrance to Havana’s Chinatown. Kaldari. CC0.*

Located just three blocks away from the Cuban capitol building, Havana’s Chinatown is a relic of prerevolutionary times. The neighborhood, which began to develop in the 1840s with the arrival of the first Chinese immigrants to the island, became the largest Asian ethnic enclave in all of Latin America by the 1920s.

Following the 1959 Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro and the 26th of July Movement, during which the country became communist, the vast majority of Chinese-Cubans fled to neighboring countries like the United States. However, beginning in the 1990s, the Cuban government began the process of revitalizing the neighborhood centered around its historical roots.

Today, the Chinese-Cuban population in Havana is small. However, visitors to El Barrio Chino have a variety of restaurants and shops to visit, most of which are centered around Calle Cuchillo. Popular favorites include Restuarante Guang Zhou, whose menu offers a blend of Cuban and Chinese cuisine, Sociedad China Chang, which centers its food around a buffet, and Restaurante Tien Tan, whose menu includes fish and pork dishes which utilize the best ingredients from the Chinese and Cuban kitchens.

2. Chinatown, Singapore

*An aerial view of Singapore’s Chinatown with the city skyline in the background. William Cho. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.*

While not necessarily an enclave in the traditional sense given that the majority of Singapore’s population is ethnic Chinese, Singapore’s Chinatown is one of the most historically and culturally significant neighborhoods of the city-state. While the appearance of a Chinese community has been documented in Singapore as early as 1330, the neighborhood was not officially designated as a Chinatown until 1822 when British colonizer Sir Stamford Raffles allocated the area west of the Singapore River as such.

Today, Singapore’s Chinatown is one of the most popular in the world. The neighborhood includes historically preserved sites such as the Sri Mariamman Temple, as well as more recent cultural icons like the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. Likewise, given that the city-state is world-renowned for its food culture, Chinatown is no exception. Popular spots for street food include the Chinatown Street Market, a pedestrian outdoor mall, and the Maxwell Food Centre, which features some of the best hawker center food including oyster cakes, peanut soup and chicken rice.

3. Quartier Asiatique, Paris

*A group of performers at Paris’ Chinese New Year parade. Passion Leica. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.*

While many Chinatowns around the globe have been around for centuries, Paris’ Quartier Asiatique is much more recent. In the late 1970s, many refugees from the Vietnam War settled in the 13th arrondissement. This was followed by later waves of ethnic Chinese immigrants coming from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Many of the ethnic Vietnamese immigrants later moved to other parts of France, leaving the neighborhood with a distinct Chinese presence.

Today, Paris’ Chinatown is considered to be the largest by population in Europe. Visitors to the neighborhood have a number of places to visit. The popular Asian supermarket chain, Tang Freres, is based in the neighborhood and offers a number of foods and goods shipped in directly from China. Restaurants such as Noodle Bar and Les Jardines de Mandchourie have some of the best Chinese food in the whole city. Likewise, the neighborhood has an annual Chinese New Year parade in February which is the largest parade in all of Paris.

4. Chinatown, Sydney

*People walking in Sydney’s Chinatown. blairwang. CC BY 2.0.*

Sydney’s Chinatown has a history rooted in movement. Many Chinese immigrants in the 1850s were drawn to Australia and settled in The Rocks, a neighborhood that gained the colloquial nickname “Chinese Quarter.” However, due to growing anti-immigrant sentiment and racism beginning in the late 1880s, Sydney’s Chinatown transitioned away from The Rocks to Campbell Street in the 1920s, before relocating again to Dixon and Hay streets, where the current Chinatown lies.

Today, Sydney’s Chinatown is world-renowned for its food and attractions. The Chinese Garden of Friendship, located just a block away from Dixon Street in Darling Harbour, was designed in conjunction with Sydney’s sister city of Guangzhou, China, and features carefully cultivated flora and beautiful architecture. Likewise, every Friday at 4 p.m., Dixon Street is taken over by the Chinatown Night Market. The stalls in the market feature everything from street food staples like dumplings and kebabs, to clothing and jewelry imported directly from China.

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Jacob is a recent graduate from the University of California San Diego where he majored in Political Science and minored in Spanish Language Studies. He previously served as the News Editor for The UCSD Guardian, and hopes to shed light on social justice issues in his work.

Cuba has long been renowned for its health care system. The island nation of 11 million maintains a ratio of 8.4 doctors per 1,000 citizens, the highest for any country according to the World Bank.

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant threat to this system, as housing shortages and limited financial resources continue to remain widespread issues for the country. Despite this, Cuba has maintained a relatively low number of cases in comparison to similar-sized countries, with The New York Times reporting 2,119 total cases and 83 deaths as of June 5.

This has led some to argue that the successes of the Cuban health care system and COVID-19 response can serve as a model for other countries still combating the virus.

Universal Health Care

One of the hallmarks of the Cuban health care system is that it is available to all citizens either for free or at a significantly reduced cost. This can be attributed to the nation maintaining a deeply centralized authoritarian government, which allows for strict control on the prices of medical goods and services.

Cuba’s health care system is by no means perfect. The nation still faces shortages on a number of medical resources, and access to more advanced procedures is often limited to the larger cities like Havana and Santiago de Cuba. However, Cuba has continued to retain low infant mortality rates and high life expectancies, numbers which outpace similarly developed countries and are on par with those of the global north.

A Rapid Domestic Response

The Cuban Ministry of Public Health implemented a “prevention and control” plan on January 28, a solid month and a half before the country would see its first positive COVID-19 case on March 18. The plan outlined concrete details as to when and how the nation would limit international travel in the name of public health, as well as policies for how virus relief resources would be distributed throughout the island.

The plan was fully implemented on March 20 with a ban on tourist arrivals to the island and the enforcement of domestic quarantine procedures. At the time, Cuba had only 21 confirmed COVID-19 cases. The nation began mass testing on May 11 to further contain the spread of the virus.

The swift implementation of the “prevention and control” plan proved successful; the number of active COVID-19 cases peaked at 849 on April 25. The Ministry of Public Health reported that the number of active cases in the country had dropped to 161 as of May 28.

Cuban Doctors Abroad

Beginning in 1963 with the stationing of 56 Cuban doctors in Algeria, Cuba has continued to send doctors, nurses and health care workers abroad on both a voluntary and monetary basis, which has grown to an estimated 28,000 Cuban medical professionals working abroad today. This practice of medical diplomacy has continued into the COVID-19 era, with the nation having sent over 2,300 medical personnel abroad to over 24 countries to combat the virus as of May 26.

While some countries like the United States have refused this sort of outside medical aid, others have been more welcoming to Cuban health care workers. Italy welcomed two separate teams of Cuban doctors to Lombardy and Piedmont, two of the hardest hit regions in the country, during the pandemic’s height in the country.

Critics have argued that the practice of sending doctors abroad is merely a form of exploitative diplomacy done in an effort to legitimize the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba. That said, the vast majority of Cuba’s medical diplomatic efforts are done in developing countries whose citizens would otherwise have no access to quality medical care.