Chinatown gets new look

BRITAIN'S oldest Chinatown looks set for a new lease of life with plans to inject $480 million into redeveloping the 19th-century quarter of Liverpool.

It has suffered from the blight that has affected the northwestern port city over the past three decades, but now the council plans to make it an attraction with mosaic dragons set into the pavements, a Chinese arch built over the main streets and pagoda-shaped telephone boxes.

The city's Chinese community predates the 1950s emigrants from Hong Kong, dating back as far as a 19th-century community of Chinese seafarers working on British merchant vessels.

But over the years it has become run down, with many Chinese moving to Manchester or London.

The final blow came in 1992 when the local council sold 390 buildings in the area to a property company that subsequently collapsed.

Now the Chinese community numbers around 14,000 and some are sceptical about its revival.