LA’s sizeable Chinese population was forcibly removed from the original Chi­natown district during the 1930s to make way for Union Station and relocated around North Broadway in an area now char­acterized by a heady assortment of live poultry shops, pagoda-shaped Far Eastern banks, bustling marketplaces entered by dragon-decorated gate­ways, and countless neon-lit restau­rants. Although many LA-Chinese fami­lies vacated Chinatown for the suburbs long ago, they often return at week­ends – by far the best time to visit Chi­natown – to shop and to eat. Much of Chinatown’s present 200,000-strong population is made up of recent arrivals from south-east Asia.