Yokohama is a famous seaport city in Tokyo Bay, Japan, with a population of more than one million. It is Japan's window for maritime trade and cultural exchanges.

In 1859, the port of Yokohama was opened. European and American merchants came to Japan from the sea, and Chinese also came to Japan one after another to do business.

It was at this time that China's letterpress printing technology was introduced to Japan.

The Chinese people gathered here to live together, gradually forming a large scale, and China Street was built from this.

Chinatown is located in Yamashita Town near the harbor in Naka-ku, Yokohama City.

Its area is 400 meters long from east to west and 300 meters wide from north to south, with two streets running from east to west.

One: China Street. There is a tall archway called "Shanlin Gate" at the west entrance of this street. There are many famous Chinese restaurants on the street, including: Yokohama Hotel, Paradise, Yong'an Building, Wanzhen Building, Jinling

Restaurant, Junchang Garden, Pinzhen Building, Zhuangyuan Building, Xie Tianji, etc.

Second: Guandi Temple Street, which is parallel to China Street and is named after the Guandi Temple.

Guandi Temple is located in the west of the street. There is a Chinese Academy in the west of the temple, where many overseas Chinese children receive Chinese cultural education.

The Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall is also nearby.

This street is also lined with large and small Chinese restaurants, as well as many Chinese shops and traditional Chinese medicine stores.

Business is booming here, and according to my daughter, Chunghwa Street is a major tax collector in Yokohama City.

The names of the roads and archways in Chinatown are also Chinese-style.

The roads include: Zhongshan Road, Guangdong Road, Shanghai Road, Chang'an Road, Silk Road; the archways include: Xuanwu Gate, Chaoyang Gate, Tianchang Gate, Dijiu Gate, Zhuque Gate, Yanping Gate, Shanlin Gate, etc.

Signboards in Chinese can be seen everywhere here, and dialects from various regions in China can be heard all the time.

It is said that during China's National Day and Spring Festival, as well as the birthday of Emperor Guan Yu, the Chinese will hold various celebration activities here, including lion dances, dragon dances, Yangko dances, and fireworks.

When you travel here, you will be immersed in the scene and feel more intimate.

What surprises me is the grandeur of the Guandi Temple in China Street and the supreme respect people have for the Holy Monarch Guandi.

Guandi Temple covers an area of ??544 square meters, the main hall is 139 square meters, and the surrounding area is 288 square meters. The main hall is 6 meters high, and the archway in front of the temple is 12 meters high.

In Japan, which has a small territory and a small amount of land, its scale is quite large.

According to reports, the current Guandi Temple is in its fourth generation.

In 1862, some Chinese began to bring the wooden statues of the Guandi Temple to build temples for worship. In 1871, the English News took a photo of the Guandi Temple at that time, which is now stored in the Yokohama Open Port Archives.

In 1886, the Guandi Temple was restored again, and Guandi moved to his seat. On May 13, 1910 in the old calendar, the Chinese held a grand sacrificial event in front of the temple. The Meiji Shimbun of Japan once took photos of it, and it is now stored in the Yokohama Open Port Archives.

In the long history, this Guandi Temple has suffered several disasters. The Great Kanto Earthquake in Japan in 1932, the air raid in 1945, and the fire in 1986. However, with the generous donations of the Chinese, it was damaged three times and repaired three times, each time better than the last.

It was built even more magnificently.

The current Guandi Temple was restored in April 2000. The double-eaves roof is covered with golden sulfur glass tiles, and the four corners of the double-eaves are sculptured with double colorful dragons. The brackets under the eaves are dense, and the doors, windows, and beams are

The walls, columns and walls are all carved and painted with gold foil, which is magnificent and dazzling.

The entire temple adopts traditional Chinese construction techniques and was built in the style of southern Fujian temples in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the Spring Festival of 2004, a stone carved dragon watch was built in the temple area according to imperial specifications.

There is also a tall archway with carved dragons and paintings on the street in front of the temple, making Guandi Temple even more majestic and majestic.

The main deity of Guandi Temple is Guan Shengdijun. On the altar in the middle of the temple is a tall standing statue of Guan Yu in imperial attire. On the right is a statue of Guan Ping and on the left is a statue of Zhou Cang. It is really solemn and majestic.

In the temples to the left and right of the main deity, statues of gods from ancient Chinese legends are also enshrined: the Jade Emperor, the Earth Mother (Nuwa), Guanyin Bodhisattva, and the Fude Zhengshen (the Earth God).

People come here to worship Guan Di as the god of wealth, which is good for business prosperity; the Jade Emperor is good for peace and prosperity; Nuwa is good for disaster relief and good health; Guanyin Bodhisattva protects happiness and childbirth; the God of the Land ensures people's property safety and good harvests.

It reflects people's good wishes.

China Street is a pedestrian street. When you walk into China Street, you will see people coming and going, bustling and bustling.

Shops are doing brisk business, restaurants are full of guests, and long queues line up in front of various Chinese snack bars on the streets to try them. Especially in supermarkets run by Chinese trading companies, trading is even more prosperous with a full range of goods.

When we reached the Guandi Temple, there were even more tourists. Almost everyone who went to Chinatown would come here to see it.

There are Chinese, Japanese, Europeans, Americans and tourists from all over the world. The place is prosperous and there is an endless stream of people praying to gods and fortune tellers.

Japanese people bow deeply at 90 degrees, which makes them appear more pious.

China Street has become a distribution center for Chinese goods. It presents the traditional Chinese history and culture, food culture, and unique traditional Chinese medicine culture to the world, embodying the noble spirit of diligence, wisdom, unity, kindness, and perseverance of the Chinese people.

I admire a couplet in front of the Guandi Temple very much: Caring for the Chinese nation, holding the Han Dynasty in one’s heart, hanging bamboo and silk, seeing the Spring and Autumn period, showing righteousness and bravery in the mountains and rivers.

It not only praises Emperor Guan, but also expresses the unanimous voice of Chinese people at home and abroad who long for the reunification and prosperity of the motherland.

Yokohama Chinatown is the largest Chinatown in Japan. Together with Kobe Nankinmachi and Nagasaki Shinchi Chinatown, it is also known as Japan's three major Chinatowns.

Yokohama Chinatown is located in the center of Yokohama City, with the beautiful Yokohama Park and Yamashita Park nearby.