A little distance from the Bangkok Chinatown Archway is the famous Wat Traimit Witthayaram. On the second floor of this monastery is the Yaowarat Chinatown heritage center that showcases the history of Overseas Chinese in Thailand or Thai-Chinese as they are now known. The Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Center is a small but engaging museum with multimedia exhibits on the history of Bangkok’s Chinatown and its residents. Tours Indochina

Located on the first level of the building that houses the famous Golden Buddha in Wat Traimit, the museum is organized as a U-shaped room divided into several areas.

Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Center

Chinatown, offers a wealth of information from the past to present. The museum is divided into six interactive exhibit sections that will take you on a fabulous journey into the past, revealing the centuries’ old Yaowarat Chinatown.

The foyer opens to a zone showcasing the prosperity of the Chinese community under His Majesty the King. The next zone traces the birth of Yaowarat by the early Chinese settlers who landed on Siam’s shores during the Rattanakosin era and then goes on through the growth of the community from 1782-1851. The third zone covers the Golden Age from 1957, when Yaowarat boasted the country’s tallest building, a nine-storey high rise with the nation’s first elevator. The other zones feature royal activities and a touch-screen directory of restaurants and eateries found in Chinatown.

A visit to the Yaowarat Heritage Centre begins with a ten-minute video

The presentations in the museum use a variety of nifty audio visual and hi tech displays to make the historical journey of the Chinese and the rise of Bangkok’s Chinatown an interesting and informative experience. There are photos of early Chinatown, scenes of typical Chinese homes, a well simulated view from the deck of a Chinese junk making its arduous way to Thailand in a storm, and plenty of life size models doing hard labor as coolies, which gives a very realistic portrayal of just how difficult life was for the first immigrants. Thailand tours packages

Before entering the museum, you will be asked to take off your shoes and put them into the bag. And you have to carry the bag with you while you are wandering in the museum. Then, after you have done with the museum, you have to return the bag at the exit door.

Chinese community in Sampheng displays at Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Centre

A visit to the Yaowarat Heritage Centre begins with a ten-minute video show in which life-sized images are projected on to an actual physical setting for a three dimensional effect which is shown in Thai, Chinese and English so you may have to wait for your preferred language’s turn. In the story set in a typical Chinese home, a grandfather tells his grandson about life in Yaowarat Chinatown in the 1940s. Then visitors can experience the real journey of these immigrants as they go through a Chinese junk with all the good that were taken to Thailand from the motherland.

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