Chinese Gardens in Darling Harbour

In 1988, Australia’s non-Aboriginal settlement was 200 years old. These gardens were a bicentennial gift to the young City of Sydney from the ancient city of Canton (Guangzhou) in southern China, the region where most of Sydney’s early Chinese came from.

There has been a Chinese presence in Sydney for almost 200 years. Many of the early Chinese Sydneysiders were market gardeners and traders,
so wherever the markets were, so were the Chinese. Between 1909 and 1915 the City Council built a new market complex at the head of Darling Harbour.
Chinese traders and importers rented market space and stores from the Council. Shops and restaurants followed, especially in Dixon Street which became the focus of Chinatown. Rooms above these shops sometimes became home for the Chinese traders and for retired gardeners who were unable to return home. The precinct became run down by the mid 20th century; the numbers of Chinese dwindled and the markets moved out of the city. Chinatown was refurbished in the 1980s. With increasing numbers of Chinese in the city once again, it has become a very popular tourist precinct as well as a meeting place for Sydney’s Chinese community.

Continue along Dixon Street (08) to the end. Many of the Chinese
firms here are new, but some, like the War Hing at No. 49 date back
many decades. At Nos. 52–54 the August Moon Restaurant may
look new, but there has been a Chinese restaurant on this site for
over half a century.