Chinatown, Gold Coast

Coordinates: 27°58′09″S 153°24′49″E / 27.9691°S 153.4135°E / -27.9691; 153.4135

Confucius statue in Young Street, 2015

Gold Coast Chinatown is focused on Davenport and Young Streets, and includes the connecting laneways (Regent and Davison Lanes) and parts of Nerang, Garden and Scarborough Streets, Southport. Gold Coast Chinatown is part of the revitalisation of Southport as a central business district for the Gold Coast.

History

Local Business and Chinese Community

The concept for Chinatown was first conceived in the early 1990s by the local Chinese community and was brought to fruition through the efforts of the State Government, City of Gold Coast, Gold Coast Chinatown Association, Committee for Southport, local business and property owners. In 2012 local property owners on Young Street voted to establish Chinatown through the Centre Improvement Program process within their precinct. In 2013 property owners on Davenport Street also voted to establish Chinatown, linking in with Young Street.

Extensive engagement has been carried out with the Chinese community throughout the preparation of the Chinatown Precinct Plan, as well as the design, development and execution of the streetscape and cultural embellishments and during the delivery of events in the space.

Key Chinese and Asian stakeholders engaged through the development of Chinatown have included;

Sister and Partner Cities

The City has been working with Jining City, which donated a carved statue of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. The Mayor officially accepted the statue on his recent visit to Jining City, which is the birthplace of Confucius.

City of Gold Coast is working closely with other cities to design and donate the Paifang and other public art for the precinct.

Gold Coast Chinatown Precinct Plan

Gold Coast Chinatown Association was awarded a grant by the State Government in 2013 to work with City of Gold Coast (City) to develop a master plan for the Chinatown. The City then developed the Gold Coast Chinatown Precinct Plan in conjunction with the association, local Chinese community, Sister Cities and local businesses and property owners.

The Gold Coast Chinatown Precinct Plan was launched by the City with the support of State Government and the Gold Coast Chinatown Association in 2013. The Precinct Plan includes the streetscape and embellishment design, retail and events strategies, plus investment attraction activities and management.

Streetscape

Streetscape improvements were completed by the City in 2014, including widened footpaths, new footpath and street lighting, landscaping reflecting Feng Shui principals, event power and water connections, upgrades to underground services, undergrounding of overhead power lines and flush kerb and channels. The streetscape design facilitates Chinatown to hold large scale events.

On December 2, 2014 it was revealed that Australia Fair Shopping Centre would spend over $15 million refurbishing Australia Fair West turning the area of the shopping centre that fronts Young Street in Chinatown into an international Asian dinning and shopping precinct to compliment Chinatown. This section of the shopping centre will be known as Australia Fair Metro.

Cultural Embellishments

There are a number of cultural embellishments that have or will be installed into Chinatown. These include:

Paifang

Three Paifang gateways will mark the entries to the heart of Chinatown.

Beihai City provided an artistic conceptual design for the Harmony Paifang. The concept is in the Han Dynasty style, which has over 2,000 years of history in their region of China. The Harmony Paifang forms two towers that mark the eastern entrance to Chinatown, on the corner of Young and Scarborough Streets. The City celebrated this traditional Chinese gateway at an official unveiling with representatives of Beihai City and the Chinese Consul-General in early 2016. This is the first of the three Paifang to be installed in Chinatown, with designs of the next two gates currently underway.

Lanterns and projection imagery

Artwork

Chinatown is the home of the City’s statue of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, which was donated to the City by Jining City in Shandong Province, the birthplace of Confucius.

“Pandamonium” is half panda and half koala statue and was donated by Mr Ted Fong, Executive President of the Gold Coast Chinese Club Inc and founding member and Chairman of Gold Coast Chinatown Association. “Pandamonium” was designed by artists David Renn and John Cox as part of the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital Foundation’s “Animals with Attitude Sculpture Trail”.

Other artwork, both ephemeral and permanent, will continue to appear as Chinatown evolves; including street art, a community piano and laneway sculptures.

Events and Festivals

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year 2015 was the first event held in Chinatown, and was the first citywide Chinese New Year festival. Over 15,000 people attended. This event was also held in 2016.

Transport

The new light rail (G:Link) is located at the Davenport St entrance to Chinatown. The G:Link connects Southport to Griffith University, the beach and entertainment districts of Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach.

See also

References

    External links

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/5/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.