There used to be a very famous Chinatown in Kolkata, India, but what is it like now?

There are two China Towns in Kolkata, one in BBD Bagh area and the other in Tangra area in southeastern Kolkata. Tapah is a small town in the east of Kolkata, covering an area of ??only 0.5 square kilometers. There are winding streets, a messy environment, and Indians coming and going all over the streets. Except for the Guoyuan Restaurant, Jiexing Leather Factory, Chengchang Sauce Garden, Meipei Middle School, etc., most of them have been closed, leaving only With the Chinese character signboard on the door, the faintly visible couplets on a red background and black characters outside the courtyard, and the occasional shabby lanterns hanging on the high red walls, it’s hard to imagine that this was once the largest Chinatown in India. Chinatown is a place full of dust and memories.

The Chinese in Tapa China Town are mainly Hakkas from Meixian County, Guangdong. After the 18th century, trade between China and India was frequent. They went to India to do business, mainly in the leather industry and shoemaking industry. At its peak, there were hundreds of Hakka-run shoe shops. However, with the gradual rise of India's local leather industry and India's anti-Chinese policy in the 1960s, many Chinese closed their factories and moved overseas one after another. The leather factories that remained and continued to operate gradually moved to Tapa District.

In recent years, the Indian government has required Chinese leather factories to move away from Tapah on the grounds of environmental pollution. Coupled with the gradual decline of the leather industry in the Chinese area, many tanneries have simply closed their doors and opened Chinese restaurants. However, As time goes by and the Chinese migrate, there are fewer and fewer Chinese restaurants. People you meet on the sparsely populated streets all have honest smiles on their faces. The Chinese here can basically communicate happily with the vendors in fluent Indian, but when they meet the same Chinese compatriots, they still use Hakka or Talk in Mandarin.

Nowadays, it is even rarer to see Chinese people here. Chengchang and Baochang, which were once gold shops, have now become shops mainly selling Chinese food seasonings, and the "Chengchang" hidden in the shop The two plaques "Chang Jin Pu" and "Baochang Jin Pu" have become the final evidence of Chinatown's prosperity.