How to spend a day in Honolulu's Chinatown

25.06.2024 - 13:37 / lonelyplanet.com

Jun 24, 2024 • 5 min read

One of Honolulu’s oldest neighborhoods, Chinatown is a must-see. Endlessly strollable, discoveries abound in its narrow streets of 19th-century buildings and markets buzz with activity by day. Don’t miss top restaurants, hole-in-the-wall kitchens, dim-sum palaces and family-run stalls, and save time for the art galleries and trendy shops. Buy a lei while you're here.

Chinatown’s location is no accident. Near Honolulu’s busy trading port, enterprises selling goods to city folks and visiting seamen sprang up in the 1820s. Many of the shops were established by Chinese laborers who had completed their sugarcane plantation contracts. Some opened raucous bars catering to sailors. Though the most successful families have long since moved away, new immigrants, mostly from Southeast Asia, keep Chinatown vibrant. The neighborhood’s heritage is on explosive display every Chinese New Year (late January to mid-February) when the staccato pop of firecrackers echoes off the old brick facades. Festivities include a parade with lion dances, with red-colored decorations everywhere.

To make the most of your time in Honolulu's Chinatown, we recommend a little planning ahead of time. If you’re wanting to take a guided tour or looking forward to dinner or cocktails at one of the swankier establishments, be sure to make reservations in advance. 

Get to Mei Sum, a no-nonsense corner stop that cranks out dim sum, top-notch little plates and Chinese mains, when it opens at 8am. Then head to Foster Botanical Garden where the tropical plants you’ve only ever read about can be spotted in all their glory. Among its rarest specimens are the Hawaiian loulu palm and the East African Gigasiphon macrosiphon, both thought to be extinct in the wild. Several of the towering trees are the largest of their kind in the USA. 

The self-guided tour is excellent and celebrates plants and trees found across Hawaii. Oddities include the cannonball tree, the sausage tree and the double coconut palm capable of producing a 50lb nut. Follow your nose past fragrant vanilla vines and cinnamon trees in the spice and herb gardens, then pick your way among the poisonous and dye plants. Don’t miss the blooming orchids or the elegant – and appropriately named – royal palms.

Local volunteers with family ties to the community run the Hawaiʻi Heritage Center, a crowded gallery with changing exhibitions about Oʻahu’s Chinese, Japanese and other ethnic communities. It runs excellent Chinatown tours Wednesday and Friday mornings. Book ahead. 

Professional architects lead Chinatown walking tours on some Saturday mornings, sponsored by AIA (American Institute of Architects). The tours deconstruct Honolulu’s most historic neighborhood and its