Chinatown, Bangkok

In return, he granted them many favours, including land on the east bank of the Chao Phraya River, opposite his palace and enclosed by city walls, on which to settle their community.

The Teochew prospered under Taksin, at the expense of the previously influential Hokkien, whose community was located in the area of Kudi Chin on the west bank south of the city.

[1] As adept merchants, the Chinese community prospered in trade, and gradually grew as immigrants from China (including non-Teochew minorities) increasingly flooded into Bangkok.

Chinatown, now a highly dense shantytown, was ravaged by numerous fires during the second half of the 19th century, which cleared the way for the construction of many new roads, including Yaowarat, during the reign of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V).

By the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, Chinatown had become Bangkok's main commercial area, as well as a red-light district hosting opium dens, theatres, nightclubs and gambling houses.