Nankin Street

The history of the China Town of Kobe, named Nankin-machi in Japanese, begins in 1868, when the Kobe port was opened for foreign trade. Chinese merchants and immigrants from various provinces of China started settling down here, and because in Japan the Chinese people were known as "people from Nankin" (from the name of the Chinese city of Nanjing) the place became known as Nankin-machi.