Old Town Chinatown is the official Chinatown of the Northwest section of Portland, Oregon. The Willamette River forms its eastern boundary, separating it from the Lloyd District and the Kerns and Buckman neighborhoods. It includes the Portland Skidmore/Old Town Historic District and the Portland New Chinatown/Japantown Historic District, which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
 
In the Northwest section, NW Broadway forms the western boundary, separating it from the Pearl District, and W Burnside St. forms the southern boundary, separating it from Downtown Portland. In the Southwest section, the neighborhood extends from SW 3rd Ave. east to the river and from SW Stark St. north to W Burnside St. (with the exception of areas south of SW Pine St. and west of SW 2nd Ave, and south of SW Oak St. and west of SW 1st Ave., which are part of Downtown).

The Chinatown portion of Old Town extends north from West Burnside St. to Union Station. The entrance is marked by a China gate (built in 1986), complete with a pair of lions, at the corner of NW 4th Ave. and W Burnside St. The core of the area, from W Burnside St. to NW Glisan St. and from NW 5th Ave. to NW 3rd Ave., was designated in 1989 the New Chinatown/Japantown Historic District.
 
When compared to the more well-known West Coast Chinatowns of Oakland and San Francisco in California and Vancouver, British Columbia, Portland's Chinatown is smaller and less active. It has more than two dozen Chinese-owned businesses, including restaurants such as Good Taste which serves Cantonese noodle soups and barbecued meats, gift and import shops, club houses, an herbal medicine store and an Asian food market.
 
Other major organizations based in Chinatown include the Port of Portland, Oregon Department of Transportation's Portland offices and NW Natural Gas. There is also a parking structure with a helipad on top.
 
In a step towards revitalization of the area, the Lan Su Chinese Garden opened September 14, 2000. The $12.8 million park covers an entire city block and was built by 65 artisans from Suzhou, China of imported materials (though all plants were grown locally). More recently, NW 3rd and 4th Avenues received streetscape improvements, including plaques describing historical features. Two block-long "festival streets" that can easily be used for street festivals were also created between these streets. In 2008, Uwajimaya anchored a redevelopment proposal, similar to the Uwajimaya Village in Seattle's Chinatown-International District. It would host the store, an underground parking garage, mixed-income apartments, and other small retailers. It was hoped to revitalize the area and bring in more tourists. In August 2011, Uwajimaya decided not to put a store in Chinatown because its stores in downtown Seattle and Renton, WA are not meeting their potentials.
 
There are actually very few Chinese people living in Chinatown. A second Chinese area has sprung up around Southeast 82nd Avenue. The Southeast 82nd area has a large number of Asians, mainly Chinese and Vietnamese. There has recently emerged an ideological division separating the established social services and SRO residents from many of the new residents and businesses over how best to accommodate new investments and activities with minimal displacement of current services and residents.
 
Translation of street names
 
The street signs in Chinatown are both English and Chinese. The Chinese on the street signs are written in Traditional Chinese and are defined through Cantonese pronunciations.
W Burnside Street - 西本世街
NW Couch Street - 西北葛珠街
NW Davis Street - 西北戴維斯街
NW Everett Street - 西北愛和烈街
NW Fifth Avenue - 西北第五街
NW Flanders Street - 西北芬蘭達士街
NW Fourth Avenue - 西北第四街
NW Glisan Street - 西北紀利臣街
NW Third Avenue - 西北第三街