President Fernández Inaugurates Chinatown in Santo Domingo

The President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández, inaugurated Santo Domingo’s Chinatown in a colorful and lively ceremony last Sunday, April 18. The ceremony took place along the popular Duarte Avenue and surrounding streets where Chinatown’s development cost more than RD$267 million pesos.

Currently this area is occupied by nearly 50 Chinese shops including supermarkets, jewelry stores, travel agencies, offices and meeting centers for various organizations including the Chinese Masonic Center.

Present at the activity, in addition to hundreds of Asians and shop owners along Duarte, Mella, Mexico and Benito González Avenues, was the Minister of Public Works Victor Díaz Rúa; Roberto Salcedo of the National District Syndicate; the First Lady Margarita Cedeño and the Executive Director of A Flower for Everyone Project and project leader, Rosa Ng Báez, according to a press release from the President’s Office.

Ng Báez, speaking to the crowd, thanked President Fernández for his support in the building of the neighborhood. She also stressed the important role Chinatown will play in the commercial development of the area.

Monsignor Ramón Benito Ángeles Fernández, Secretary General of the Dominican Episcopal Conference and Parish priest of San Antonio de Padua Church, blessed the new area and the project.

Guests at the event enjoyed a dance performance featuring figures of lions and dragons as well as a fireworks display, among other cultural activities.

The Minister of Public Works explained that the work done on this area of more than 50,000 square meters consisted of paving the streets with red and black cobblestones, repairing potholes, widening sidewalks and improving rain water drainage systems along pedestrian areas.

Taiwanese Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Isaac Tsai, congratulated the Dominican people for the inauguration of Chinatown and praised the Ministry of Public Works and the Santo Domingo City Council for their efforts in developing the area.

More Than Ten Years Ago

The Flower for Everyone Foundation has been at the helm of this enormous project for the past ten years with the help and cooperation of various public and private institutions. An idea that was born more than ten years ago began to take shape in 2005

Now Chinatown is a new tourism attraction and the focus of attention for many investors, said Rosa Ng Báez, Executive Director of the foundation and head of the initiative. Ms. Ng Báez belongs to the third generation of Chinese nationals living in the Dominican Republic. Rosa Ng explained that it required a huge effort to clean up the neighborhood which is now Chinatown. Scores of abandoned houses had begun to deteriorate over time and were used by poor people then later attracted drug addicts, prostitutes and criminals.

The development and creation of Chinatown brought together a collection of talented, Chinese and Dominican, architects, landscape artists, designers and sculptors.

The Chinatown project includes several important plazas such as the Chinese Zodiac and Confucius Square which are surrounded by six traffic islands with plants and shrubbery characteristic of China. In Confucius Square there stands a monument in honor of the Chinese philosopher. The monument includes a sculpture built atop a stone base ornamented with dragons and peacocks; information in Spanish and Chinese is etched onto the base of the sculpture.

In Chinese Zodiac Plaza a three-meter-tall sculpture of the Goddess of Mercy has been erected along with 12 other Zodiac statues represented by human figures with animal heads.

“The history of Chinese immigration is depicted on finely engraved sculptures in marble. They describe the colloquial situations that decorate the Southern Gate (Portón del Sur) where the symbolic figure of the Chinese Immigrant steps onto Chinese Duarte Avenue with other bronze statues that represent ancient Chinese social classes, gods and theater personalities,” explained the Flower for Everyone Foundation director.

The development and creation of Chinatown brought together a collection of talented, Chinese and Dominican, architects, landscape artists, designers and sculptors. All of the sculpture was made in China with the most valuable carved from Carrara marble. Other statues and sculptures were made from a base of bronze and steel alloy.

Now that Chinatown has been inaugurated, the Flower for Everyone Foundation hopes to build an Institute dedicated to Confucius to disseminate his philosophy and teachings. The foundation is also planning to build a Chinese clinic, Asian art museum and a theater.