Chinatown - Neighborhood - Paris

The thirteenth arrondissement holds a dense network of high-rise apartment towers constructed during the nineteen seventies. These towers house the Quartier Asiatique, a center for the French-Vietnamese and Southeast Asian communities. Thousands of refugees arrived here following the end of the Vietnam War in nineteen seventy-five, moving into the vacant housing projects left behind by previous urban planners. Today, the scent of five-spice and roasted duck drifts between concrete plazas where elderly residents practice tai chi every morning.