Seattle Chinatown isn't what it used to be

How to explain Seattle Chinatown?

Dirty streets...

Closed up shops...

Rundown restaurants...

I've visited a number of Chinatowns across the U.S. and the world, including of course San Francisco, Washington D.C., New York, and even one in Lima, Peru.

Some chinatowns are growing and are great tourist locations. However, as sad as I am to say it, the one in Seattle isn't very good for tourists. It's located down on by the Seattle Seahawks stadium, which is a traditionally industrial part of town and not very clean.

However, that being said, there are some new developments coming into the Seattle international district, such as some very nice apartments, which hopefully will translate into more opportunities for growth in the area.

There is one cool place in Seattle's chinatown, however, that you'll want to go see if you're down in the area. It's a great store called Uwajimaya and it's stocked with all sorts of things Asian. It's a grocery store that's got all kinds of Asian food, but there's also a bookstore inside where you can find any number of Asian language magazines and books.

It's a great place to visit if you're down in the area, but like I said before, until they fix it up some more, I personally wouldn't spend the time and energy to take the family down there now.

If you want to do some more shopping for Asian goods, you can go check out a place called the Great Wall Shopping Center.