Paris Chinese Grocery - Belleville

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So there are two major "Chinese Zones" in Paris. The first is in the 13th and the most popular, mostly run by the Chinese who were born in Vietnam or Laos, and the second is in Belleville, right next or sometimes known within the "dangerous" areas of Gare de l'Est where the majority of the Northern and subsaharan Africans reside and do business. I quoted "dangerous" because it is what all the Parisians tell me so I heed their warnings and do not go at night - I haven't seen anything dangerous in any of the 10th, 11th, 19th, or 20th - Belleville is the centre of where these arrondisements/districts meet. Indeed, this area is known for its cheap rent for immigrants and the working class. I'm not saying that this area isn't dangerous (in Jan 2014 a ton of prostitutes were arrested in the Chinatown there) but it's quite busy during the day and brimming in colour from the graffitis on the walls and the colour of the people so you kinda grow into invisibility amongst the crowd - whether you think that's dangerous or not is to each's interpretation. I did go there on a Sunday and there are a TON of prostitutes there. A little creepy....

I do like the grocery stores here in comparison to the 13th, as there are more Chinese things such as frozen dumplings for boil.

Anyway, the Chinatown in Belleville sprouted in the 1980s, stemming from by the large population of WenZhou, China immigrants. In 2000, according to this webpage on Chinese immigrants, there were 130 thousand Chinese people from WenZhou in Paris:

所以從1990年代開始，溫州人把經濟活動向巴黎的美麗城街（Rue de Belleville）開闢一個新的溫州人經濟活動區。美麗城街位於巴黎十區、十一區和十九區的交會處，原來是阿拉伯移民聚集區，屬於巴黎有名的落後貧窮地區，社會秩序相當混亂。

Starting from 1990s, the immigrants from Wenzhou, China moved their economic activities towards Paris's Belleville, to open a new economic activity centre for them. Belleville is the intersection of 10th, 11th, and 19th district of Paris, originally an immigrant centre for the Arabs, belonging to infamous Parisian high-poverty neighbourhood, full of social problems .

According to http://www.rendezvousfrance.com/chine.html

In the mid 1980's, another Chinatown sprouted in another part of Paris: Belleville, in the northeastern section of the city. Belleville, which was the home of Edith Piaf and Maurice Chevalier, has been for the longest time the neighborhood where new immigrants would settle. You can still find Jewish tailors and Armenian shoemakers; more recently, Arabs and Africans moved in. In the summer, rue Rebeval feels like Cholon, the Chinese open air market in Saigon.

And there are quite a number of chinese grocery stores here, opened by the Chinese from WenZhou. Some of which are opened on Sundays and closed on Mondays (although the laws keep changing).

As soon as you get out of the Belleville metro stop, you are in the intersection between Rue de Belleville and Bd de Belleville. In fact, you are in between the 10th and the 20th arrondisement!!

On the west side (left arrow on my map above) of the metro stop is Chen Market, situated on rue de vilette Their Chinese name though is China Red (中國紅）and they seem really new. I tried googling in French, Chinese, English and nothing came up about them besides a deleted wanted Ad in a Chinese forum site, which would explain why the inside is extremely clean and bright and organized, but not all the shelves are filled.

Their produce section is outside and full of fresh asian vegetables. There are some herbs in the fridge on the inside. There is also a fresh seafood area and a fresh butcher area in the very back. I checked frozen dumplings to boil in water - a good variety for Paris standard. I was quite impressed. They are opened Tuesdays to Sundays  - yes you heard right SUNDAYS! All day!...well until 7pm or 8pm or something, and a awesome place to shop for asian groceries on a Sunday.



On the other end of rue de belleville, is a long street with 3-4 supermarkets (east end).

The first one you will encounter is called Supermarche Univ-Fresh, or what used to be known as Wing An Supermarche. It's a bit confusing on this one because on Google Maps from 2012 the English Sign is wing an, which matches the Chinese name that has never changed (永安商場).
Supermarche Univ-Fresh
永安商場
9 Rue de Belleville‎ 
75020 Paris




Across the street, is Supermarche Bonjour, or more popularly known as 新温州超市. It took me forever to find out it's French/English name as the name was not on the sign and all the references are in Chinese (they don't exist on the internet either!). I believe they have a counterpart store in the 3rd arrondisement, but I haven't checked it out yet. This one is also open on Sundays! At the moment of writing, this one is much smaller in scale than Chen Market, but is fully stocked and I did find items that did not exist in the Chen Market. This one is way old too. Also dumplings!

Supermarche Bonjour
新温州超市
10 Rue de Belleville, 75020 Paris, France
+33 1 40 33 08 88

Right next to Supermarche Bonjour, is another smaller supermarket not opened on Sundays: Supermarche Les Quatres Saisons. I did not get a chance to go in, but I really didn't need to because the other two already had everything I was looking for. I think they have a counterpart at in the 3rd too.

Supermarche Les Quatres Saisons
新中華商場
12 Rue de Belleville 75020

And then down the street a little bit more, there's another one called Les Halles de l'Asie, which is really small inside and on the outside has the veggies too.

Les Halles de l'Asie
新今日超級市場
12 Rue de Belleville 75020 


So now, we take a different direction when we come out of Belleville - towards Boulavard de la Vilette. First one on your right, is going to be Paris Store and then going down the street further, across the blvd, is ANOTHER Paris Store - on the same street, except in a different arrondisement...of course...

Paris Store 
巴黎士多

• 5 Boulevard de la Villette 75010 Paris
• 10-12 Boulevard de la Villette 75019 Paris

And then down the street a little more at the next intersection is Wing Seng Supermarche. It's a big one. I didn't go in. Closed on Sundays.

Wing Seng Supermarche
永盛百貨商場
2 Rue Rebeval 75019