China Town Madrid

Ever been there?

In todays English edition of El Pais was an article titled "Conflict rages over Madrid's Chinatown".

I had no idea Madrid had a Chinatown, according to the article it is located in the Cobo Calleja industrial park in Feunlabrada.

Any idea where that is, I'm car less so I haven't been out there. The only Chinese run shop I know of is near La Tina metro.

They use the term "chinatown", but it is not the same concept as in America. It is just an area of that industrial park where there are some Chinese wholesellers who provide the goods for the many Chinese retail shops. The area in Madrid closer to the American concept (i.e. part of the town where the majority of the population comes from China) is actually where you say: near La Latina Metro station and more precisely the North end of Embajadores street and Meson de Paredes street. There are wholesale shops, too, there.

The retail shops are spread all over the city and, basically, are of two kinds: "todo-a-cien" (cheap and small items for almost every purpose, from cutlery to hardware, plastics, plant containers, little toys...), or convenience stores (groceries open 365 days a year, from about 10 am to midnight or even longer).

The Madrid "China Town" is actually moving....
Usera (a working class barrio in the south) is suffering a very fast transformation and I think that, at the moment, there is more Chinese population here than in Lavapiés.
5 or 6 years ago we started to see Chinese restaurants with only Chinese people inside, Chinese food shops. Now we have Chinese dress-shops, a Chinese church, an association where elderly Chinese go and play Ma-yong (sp?), and loads of hairstylists and shops of all kinds.
This is becoming a very interesting barrio!