The original Chinatown Plaza, which stretches along the south side of Spring Mountain Road between Wynn and Arville, was built by Taiwanese-American developer James Chen. He knew that, because there was no central Chinatown encompassing the Asian population in Las Vegas, he could actually create one by developing a core and attracting Asians to it. Designed to be a discrete district that offers all things Asian, especially authentic food, to Chinese-speaking tourists from the West Coast and Asia, the Plaza opened in 1995.
The architecture -- and themes -- derive from the Tong Dynasty. The front of the mall is graced by a large pagoda-style arch. A fountain in the center of the parking lot has two statues, one of the 7th-century Buddhist monk Xuanzang and his Journey to the West, the other of the Monkey God; both are figures from classical Tong Dynasty-era Chinese literature.
The mall itself is more pan-Asian than Chinese. Though Chinese music wafts through the covered walkways outside the shops and framed posters illustrate Chinese customs, arts, and entertainment, the shops and restaurants embrace the Philippines, Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and more.
Ten restaurants serve Szechwan, Mandarin, Shanghai, dim sum, and Chinese barbecue and seafood; Filipino dishes (there’s also a Filipino bakery); Japanese and sushi, and Vietnamese (where you can often see employees from the Huntington Press office, which is just around the corner, eating pho and imperial rolls, not to mention readers who pay close attention to our locals eateries, such as the submitter of this question).
Stores include the area’s largest Oriental gift shop and only Chinese-language bookstore, jewelry and jade, Oriental fashions, art, crafts, CD/DVD, travel, flowers and plants, herbs, tea (try the tapioca drinks), and massage.
The anchor store, however, is the 99 Ranch Market, by far the largest Asian supermarket in the city. This is a branch of a West Coast chain, so it's familiar to most Asian visitors and transplants. Its shelves are packed with mostly Chinese, but also other Asian packaged food, along with an exotic produce section and a fantastic array of fresh flesh, including a huge selection of whole fish, live shellfish, and spiny creatures from the deep (the seafood aroma permeates the store and will make you forget you're not only in Las Vegas, but the U.S. of A. to boot).
Chinatown Plaza was just the first strip mall with an Asian theme in the local area. In the past five years or so, the pagoda architecture has spread out about a mile in either direction on both sides of Spring Mountain Road, with everything from Asian language schools to acupuncture. Pretty soon, it'll go all the way to the Strip (well, maybe).
In 1999, then-Governor Kenny Guinn designated the area as Las Vegas's official Chinatown, with signs on the highways identifying it as such. Subsequently, the Clark County Commission proclaimed Chinatown Plaza the official Asian Pacific American Cultural Center for Las Vegas.
