Chinatown — Local services in Chicago

Chinatown as a whole area in the city of Chicago is doing great.Businesses are opened, very few vacant stores. Lots of shoppers, buying for daily essentials as well as tourists looking for souvenirs, to seasonal shoppers for bulk purchase to stock up till next visit to Chinatown. Many eateries places of many food items to try or just to eat. Street parking are plentiful, mixed metered and free, as well as parking lots for worries free parking. They go by hourly rate and some restaurants may offer voucher for discounted rate. However, none of other varieties stores will have that offers. More incentives or make it a point to eat after or before shopping. Be aware of voucher time limits on parking. Restaurant prices varies pending on types of food items served, not all are Chinese food and types, there are Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai and Americans. One can have a reasonable portion and filling meal for one for less than $10. Or an extravaganza for one for $40 as lunch. Dinner is of course a different ball game and price standard and choice of food items. Chinatown is a must see locale when visiting Chicago as tourists or a local Chicagoan to come by for seasonal visit or a local resident to come by frequently to grocery shop, to eat out, to enjoy this place scenery and browse around, spotting...

Chinatown has undergone some major renovations lately, transforming it to be quite welcoming. There are many new shops with brightly lit store fronts that are very attractive. We were there during the July 4th holiday, and we were blown away with so many people there. Parking was a major issue with both public parking lots full leaving visitors without any parking options. This was the only bad thing. There are so many places where great food is served. Also, I noticed quite a few police cars around Chinatown giving it a secured feeling. Chinatown is no longer the old place where run-down stores are present. The new appearance is very attractive and enticing. It's...

Chinatown itself has many little shops to buy souvenirs, I personally think they all sell the same thing so don’t waste your time trying to visit every single one, same goes for the boba tea places. FYI they are a bit overpriced. plenty of restaurants to try, I’ve tried several and haven’t had any issues yet. It’s also very crowded on the weekends just FYI.

We usually stop here for the parking. There’s multiple transportation options. Chinatown has an all day parking for around 16 bucks and the L red line and green line is right there as well as the water taxi a short walk over to the Ping Tom park to ride into the city...