Nagasaki · ShinchiNo.437★★★Open in map →
Nagasaki Champon
— Pork, seafood and vegetables in one noodle bowl
A cross of two stone-paved streets in central Nagasaki, gated at each of its four ends, where champon is the everyday order rather than a souvenir. One of Japan's three historic Chinatowns, and the easiest of them to walk end to end.
Nagasaki Shinchi Chinatown sits between the harbour and the covered shopping arcades of the city centre. Its plan is simple: two stone-paved streets crossing at right angles, running about 250 metres in all, with a gate standing at each of the four ends. Roughly forty businesses line them — restaurants, food shops and shops selling Chinese goods. The paving was laid with help from Fuzhou in Fujian, Nagasaki's sister city. It is counted as one of Japan's three historic Chinatowns, alongside Yokohama and Kobe.
Background & history
The ground here is made land. In the mid-Edo period the sea in front of the Chinese residential compound was filled in to build warehouses for the China trade, which is where the name Shinchi, new land, comes from. When Nagasaki opened as an international port late in the Edo period the compound was dissolved, and Chinese residents moved onto the reclaimed block — the direct ancestor of today's quarter. Champon itself came later, in the Meiji era, devised by Chen Ping-shun, a cook from Fuzhou, as a cheap and filling meal for Chinese students in the city.
What to look for — in walking order
- Genbumon, the north gate
- the red gate facing the tram stop, one of four named for the guardian animals of the compass
- The stone-paved crossroads
- two streets meeting at right angles, paved with help from Fujian and lined with restaurants and food shops
- Suzakumon, the south gate
- the gate at the harbour end, opening onto the square where festival stages are built
- Minato Park
- the open square just beyond the south gate, main venue of the Lantern Festival at Lunar New Year
- Dejima
- the restored Dutch trading post a few minutes north, an easy addition on the way back
How to enjoy it
Come at lunch, when most kitchens in the quarter are running and the streets are at their busiest, then walk the same crossing again after dark once the gates and lanterns are lit. If you can choose your season, the Lantern Festival at Lunar New Year fills the quarter and the square beside it with light — though that is also the hardest time to get a table.
How to actually get there
- Nagasaki Station → Shinchi-Chinatown tram stop (route 1 tram, about 10 minutes).
- Tram stop → the north gate: cross the road and the red bridge, about 2 minutes.
- Walk the cross of streets to the south gate and Minato Park, then double back north toward Dejima.
- Tram from Nagasaki Station
- From the Nagasaki Ekimae stop take a route 1 tram toward Sofukuji and get off at Shinchi-Chinatown, roughly ten minutes. Nagasaki's trams charge one flat fare whatever the distance, and cars run every few minutes through the day, so no timetable planning is needed.
- Returning to Nagasaki Station
- Take a route 1 tram from the same stop in the Akasako direction back to Nagasaki Ekimae. Cars run into the evening, but the last departure is posted at the stop — check it if you are staying for dinner.
Before you go
- Cash
- The streets and the four gates are public and free to walk; only what you eat costs anything. Trams accept nationally interoperable IC cards as well as cash, and with an IC card a transfer at Shinchi-Chinatown onto a second line is free.
- Closing days
- The quarter itself has no opening hours, but each restaurant and shop keeps its own hours and days off, so check before making a special trip for one place. During the Lantern Festival the quarter and the neighbouring square are the main venues and both are crowded from late afternoon.
- Another way
- From the Glover Garden and Oura Church side, take a route 5 tram from Ishibashi toward Hotarujaya and get off at Shinchi-Chinatown. On foot, the quarter is about five minutes south of the Dejima tram stop.
- After you get off
- From the Shinchi-Chinatown tram stop, cross the road and the short red bridge to the north gate; the quarter starts there, about two minutes on flat ground.