Houston's Asiatown: Bellaire Boulevard

Houston's first Chinatown grew up downtown around the turn of the 20th century, but by the 1980s a second, far larger one was rising out of the flat prairie of the southwest side — strung for miles along Bellaire Boulevard past Beltway 8. Vietnamese refugees, Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants, and later Korean, Filipino, Indian, and Pakistani newcomers turned strip centers and old suburban shells into a sprawling galaxy of dumpling houses, boba shops, herbal pharmacies, banquet halls, and temples. Locals argue over the name — Chinatown, Little Saigon, or the umbrella term Asiatown — because no single group owns it. This drive traces Bellaire Boulevard through the district, from its western malls back toward the old Bellaire streetcar suburb that gave the road its name, showing how a former truck-farming corridor became one of the great Asian-American commercial landscapes in the United States. Come hungry; almost every stop is also a meal.