Kolkata has the only Chinatown in India, and it has two of them. Chinese settlement here goes back to the 1770s, when a trader called Tong Achew set up a sugar mill south of the city; the village of Achipur still carries his name. Through the nineteenth century Hakka, Cantonese and Hubei migrants came as carpenters, shoemakers, dentists, sailors and above all tanners.
Territti Bazar in the centre is the older quarter, now reduced to a street breakfast market that runs from six to eight in the morning. Tangra in the east is the larger one, built around the tanneries, and its restaurants occupy the sheds where the tanning used to happen. Indian Chinese food — chilli chicken, Hakka noodles, the whole Manchurian family — was invented in these kitchens.
The community numbered over twenty thousand at its height. After the 1962 war, when around three thousand Chinese-Indians were interned at Deoli, and with later emigration to Canada and Australia, it is now a few thousand. That is the reason to go now rather than later.
The Chinese Community of Kolkata
Two centuries, two Chinatowns, and a community now much smaller
Territti Bazar
The old Chinatown, and a breakfast market that ends at eight
Tangra
The tannery district that became India’s only Chinatown
Indian Chinese Cuisine
Chilli chicken, Manchurian and Hakka noodles — invented here
Chinese New Year in Kolkata
Lion dances at Tangra and Territti Bazar, and the pilgrimage to Achipur
Worth knowing
- Territti Bazar runs six to eight in the morning. There is nothing to see later.
- Sunday morning at Territti Bazar is when the old community gathers
- Tangra’s restaurants are in converted tannery buildings, which is why they are so large
- Chimney soup is the Tangra speciality and is rare elsewhere in India
- Chinese New Year, in January or February, is when the community is fully visible
- Achipur, south of the city, is where the settlement began and is visited at new year
Read the city another way
A note on this page. Restaurants, shops and markets open, move and close far more often than industries do. Everything here is a snapshot of Kolkata as of 2026, offered as a starting point rather than a live listing. Check the address and the hours before you travel.
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