The City has begun construction of a new Chinatown Gate at 97th Street between Jasper Avenue and Okîsikow Way (101A Avenue). This is the site of Edmonton’s original Chinatown, but many of the businesses had to move or close when Canada Place was built in the late 1980s. 

The new gate replaces Harbin Gate on 102nd Avenue and 97th Street, built in 1987 as a gift from Edmonton’s twin city, Harbin, China. The original gate was dismantled and put in storage in 2017 to make way for the Valley Line Southeast LRT.

When the new site was chosen, which is wider than the original site, plans to relocate the old gate had to be changed. The City, in consultation with the Chinese Benevolent Association of Edmonton and other members of the Chinese community, has worked with traditional gate artists in Harbin to develop a design. Some features of the original gate will be introduced in the new one, including the plaque and bell and the stone lions.

The gate’s structure will be made from steel. The new gate will feature high-density polystyrene on its decorative features instead of the traditional clay materials.  These changes are intended to reduce costs and make the structure more durable. 

“The new gate will feature four art panels. Artwork for the two south-facing panels will be supplied by the City of Harbin. Artwork for the two north-facing panels will be designed by a local artist,” says Jarek Karpiejuk, Director, LRT Expansion and Renewal. The City issued a  public call for art earlier this year. As of press time, the submissions were still under review.

Kathryn Luu, chair of the Edmonton Chinatown Business Improvement Area (BIA), is pleased to see the project moving forward. “We are very happy it’s back,” she says. The BIA likes the location, which connects the original site of Chinatown in Edmonton with the Gate of Happy Arrival built in 1998 at 97th Street and 107A Avenue (near the Lucky 97 Supermarket). The Gate of Happy Arrival commemorates newcomers from Vietnam and other areas of Asia. “This is more than a landmark,” Luu says. “It brings people downtown to visit and builds community. It is an Instagram-able structure.”

Sandy Pon, chair of the Chinatown Transformation Collaborative Society of Edmonton (CTC), is also happy that the gate is finally being rebuilt. “We are very sad about what happened to the original gate but [are] looking forward,” she says.

Pon has concerns about the consultation process. “The community cannot see how the City’s contractors can come up with a price tag of $8.7M and yet state that savings are reflected through the substitution of inferior materials,” she says.

Plans are for the project to be completed in early 2027.

Anita Jenkins is a retired writer and editor who lives in Boyle Street.

Update June 11th, 2026: The Chinese Benevolent Association (CBA) released a public statement on June 10th saying that the organization is withdrawing its participation in the Chinatown Gate project. 

"We have repeatedly offered cultural guidance and practical leadership for the Chinatown Gate Project. Despite our sustained engagement, our input has been sidelined as the project’s scope and cost expanded. The city’s approval of an $8.7 million design, at a time when Chinatown face serious economic and social pressures, demonstrates a troubling misalignment with community priorities," the CBA states.

"The CBA cannot support a project where cultural partners are treated as symbolic rather than substantive contributors, nor can we endorse spending substantial taxpayer dollars for a single, over-budget capital item while urgent needs in Chinatown, including safety, business recovery, and sanitation remain unmet. We believe these funds would deliver greater public benefit if invested in initiatives that directly support residents and local businesses."

Ward O-day'min Councillor Anne Stevenson is disappointed by the CBA's decision. "I'm really saddened that, that they've arrived at this conclusion," she said in an interview with Boyle McCauley News. "They've been a huge part of of the gate. Their input has been incredibly valuable throughout the whole process."

Stevenson met with the CBA in February concerning the project's cost as well as cultural appropriateness, things which she says go together. The original design of the gate was to be $6 million, which later expanded to $10 million before coming back down to the final figure of $8.7 million. 

"One of the things driving the costs were some of those material elements. So we heard from the community that having the glazed tile was really important. And so a lot of effort was put into procuring those, but not all of the elements could be ceramic just because of the weight and and and the cost of the materials," Stevenson explains. She adds that other options were explored during the procurement process that did not result in lower costs.

Stevenson hopes to continue to have dialogue with the CBA. "I'm hopeful that there's a path forward, that there's a way to celebrate this as a as a whole community."