If you spend even a few days in Panama, you will probably notice something that surprises many first time visitors: the Chinese presence in Panama is enormous.
You see Chinese supermarkets everywhere. Chinese restaurants are deeply woven into everyday Panamanian life. In Panama City there are Chinese neighbourhoods and businesses, and in towns far away from the capital you can often find a Chinese owned minisúper almost as reliably as you can find a pharmacy.
This isn't a recent phenomenon caused by the Panama Canal's modern relationship with China.
The Chinese have been part of Panama for more than 170 years.
And the story begins with one of the most important transportation projects in 19th century history.
It started with a railroad, not the Canal
The first significant Chinese migration to Panama began in the 1850s, when Chinese workers were recruited to help build the Panama Railroad across the isthmus.
The timing was perfect from an economic perspective.
The California Gold Rush had begun, and thousands of people were desperately trying to get from the eastern United States to California. Crossing North America was an enormous journey, so a much faster alternative was to travel by sea to Panama, cross the narrow isthmus and then continue by ship toward California.
Suddenly Panama needed an enormous amount of labour.
Chinese workers, many from Guangdong in southern China, were recruited to work on the railroad. One particularly important arrival occurred on March 30, 1854, when the Sea Witch reached Panama carrying 705 Chinese workers recruited for the railroad project.
The conditions were brutal.
Panama was hot, humid and plagued by diseases that killed enormous numbers of workers. Malaria and yellow fever were major threats, and the early Chinese labourers experienced terrible working and living conditions. Historical accounts describe extremely high mortality among some of the early groups.
So the Chinese community did not begin with a comfortable immigration program.
It began with extremely difficult labour.
Then came the Canal
The railroad was only the beginning.
During the 1880s, France attempted to construct a canal across Panama. Chinese workers were again among the immigrants arriving to participate in the enormous project.
Later, when the United States took over the canal project, Chinese immigrants and their descendants continued to become part of Panama's rapidly developing economy.
But something interesting happened.
Many Chinese immigrants eventually stopped being construction workers and became business owners.
They moved into food production, laundries, services and especially retail.
And that decision would have an enormous impact on Panama.
The Chinese became the shopkeepers of Panama
One of the most fascinating parts of this story is how quickly Chinese immigrants established themselves in small commerce.
By the early 20th century, Chinese merchants operated hundreds of retail businesses across Panama. Their stores supplied food and everyday necessities to communities that often had limited access to other commercial options.
This eventually became so deeply associated with Chinese Panamanians that the word “chino” became part of everyday Panamanian vocabulary for a small grocery or corner store.
You don't necessarily have to go looking for the Chinese community in Panama.
You can walk into it.
Go to a small town.
Look for the little grocery store.
There's a surprisingly good chance that somebody behind the counter will have Chinese ancestry.
And this isn't just a Panama City phenomenon. Chinese Panamanians became established throughout the country, including smaller provincial towns.
Why did the community become so large?
There wasn't one single wave of Chinese immigration.
It happened in stages.
The railroad brought the first major group.
The French Canal project brought another.
The American Canal era created additional economic opportunities.
Then came family migration.
Once Chinese immigrants had established themselves in Panama, they could bring relatives and acquaintances. Those newcomers could enter businesses that previous immigrants had already established.
This created something that immigration researchers often see in migrant communities:
one successful immigrant creates the infrastructure for the next immigrant.
A person arrives.
He opens a shop.
His brother comes.
Then a cousin.
Then another family.
Eventually there is a network of businesses, associations and community institutions.
The community becomes self sustaining.
But Panama actually tried to stop Chinese immigration
This is one of the lesser known parts of the story.
The relationship between Panama and its Chinese population was not always friendly.
After Panama became independent in 1903, legislation was introduced restricting Chinese immigration. Later measures placed additional restrictions and financial burdens on Chinese residents. In the 1940s, under nationalist President Arnulfo Arias, the situation became particularly severe, with citizenship rights affected and approximately 1,000 Chinese reportedly forced to leave Panama around 1941.
So there was a strange contradiction.
Chinese immigrants had become economically important to Panama, while simultaneously facing discrimination and attempts to restrict their presence.
Yet the community survived.
And eventually it became an unmistakable part of Panamanian society.
Panama's Chinese community didn't remain isolated
This is another reason the Chinese presence in Panama feels different from what you might encounter in some countries.
Over generations, Chinese Panamanians became deeply integrated into the country.
People married outside the community.
Children grew up speaking Spanish.
Chinese food became Panamanian food.
Chinese businesses became part of ordinary neighbourhood life.
And eventually the distinction between “Chinese” and “Panamanian” became much less straightforward.
Estimates vary considerably depending on whether you count recent immigrants, people with Chinese ancestry, or people who identify as Chinese Panamanian. Minority Rights Group estimates more than 200,000 people of Chinese origin, while Panama's municipal government has cited a community of around 300,000. Other estimates put the number of Panamanians with some Chinese ancestry even higher.
So you will sometimes hear very different numbers.
The important point isn't whether the community contains exactly 200,000, 300,000 or another number.
It's that Panama has one of the largest and most historically established Chinese communities in Central America.
And then came the Chinese restaurant
This is where the story gets delicious.
Chinese food didn't simply remain something eaten by Chinese immigrants.
It became Panamanian food.
Walk into a Panamanian Chinese restaurant and you might find dishes that would seem completely ordinary to someone from Panama but surprisingly different to someone from China.
Chow mein.
Fried rice.
Dim sum.
Chinese style soups.
And combinations influenced by local ingredients and Panamanian tastes.
There is even a famous expression suggesting that a Chinese breakfast is one of the most Panamanian breakfasts you can have.
That's cultural integration at its most delicious.
Why are Chinese supermarkets everywhere?
The traditional minisúper chino is perhaps the most visible legacy.
These little stores are incredibly useful in Panama.
You can find drinks, snacks, rice, canned food, cleaning supplies, beer, toiletries and all sorts of emergency items.
They are especially important outside the major cities, where enormous supermarkets aren't always convenient.
The business model also made sense historically.
A small shop required relatively little infrastructure compared with a large company, could be operated by a family and could serve a neighbourhood directly.
Over generations, Chinese Panamanian entrepreneurs became extremely successful in this sector.
Today, however, the community is much broader than grocery stores. Chinese Panamanians are involved in manufacturing, restaurants, importing, professional occupations, real estate and many other sectors.
Panama City has its own Chinatown
Panama City's historic Chinese neighbourhood developed around areas including Salsipuedes and Avenida B.
The original Chinatown has changed considerably over the decades, but Chinese cultural institutions and businesses remain important.
Another major centre of Chinese Panamanian life developed around El Dorado, where Chinese businesses, restaurants, shops and community institutions became particularly visible.
If you want to experience another side of Panama City, exploring its Chinese heritage can be fascinating.
You're not simply visiting an immigrant neighbourhood.
You're looking at a community that has been part of Panama's history since before the modern Panama Canal existed.
And here's the really fascinating part
When you look at Panama's population, you're looking at the result of an extraordinary amount of migration.
Indigenous peoples were here first.
Then came Spanish colonization.
African populations arrived through slavery and later migration.
Caribbean workers came in enormous numbers during the railroad and Canal eras.
Europeans, Americans, Middle Eastern immigrants, South Asians and Chinese all became part of Panama's story.
And the Chinese community is particularly interesting because it arrived at almost exactly the moment when Panama was beginning to become one of the world's great transportation crossroads.
The railroad brought them.
The Canal economy helped them stay.
Commerce allowed them to prosper.
Families expanded the community.
And generations of integration turned Chinese immigration into Chinese Panamanian culture.
The Chinese influence goes far beyond restaurants
Once you start paying attention, you see it everywhere.
The small grocery store on the corner.
The Chinese restaurant packed with Panamanians.
Dim sum on a Sunday morning.
Chinese New Year celebrations.
Chinese language schools and community organizations.
Businesses importing products from Asia.
Chinese surnames that have become completely ordinary in Panamanian society.
And families whose ancestry is Chinese but whose identity is simply Panamanian.
That last part is important.
It would be a mistake to imagine that everyone with Chinese ancestry in Panama is a recent immigrant or lives in a separate Chinese community.
Many are several generations removed from China.
They speak Spanish.
They grew up in Panama.
They went to Panamanian schools.
They support Panamanian football teams.
They eat Panamanian food.
And they may have never lived anywhere except Panama.
Panama and China today
There is also a much newer chapter to this story.
Panama established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in 2017, switching recognition from Taiwan. But this modern diplomatic relationship is actually quite separate from the much older Chinese Panamanian community.
This distinction is worth remembering because people sometimes see Chinese businesses or Chinese investment in Panama and assume the Chinese presence is a recent phenomenon.
It isn't.
Chinese people were living and working in Panama more than a century before Panama established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.
The Chinese Panamanian story is therefore much older than today's geopolitics.
From railroad workers to an essential part of Panama
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the story is how much changed in roughly 170 years.
The first Chinese workers arrived under extremely difficult circumstances to build a railroad across one of the most dangerous environments on Earth.
Many died.
Those who survived helped establish a community.
That community moved into commerce.
Businesses grew.
Families arrived.
Children were born in Panama.
Chinese food became Panamanian food.
Chinese stores became neighbourhood institutions.
And eventually Chinese ancestry became one of the threads woven into the remarkably multicultural fabric of Panama.
So the next time you walk into a little minisúper chino somewhere in Panama and buy a cold drink, a bag of chips and something you have absolutely no idea how to pronounce, remember that you're participating in a story that began more than 170 years ago with a railroad and a group of Chinese workers arriving on the other side of the world.
Panama's Chinese community isn't simply a population that happens to live in Panama.
It is one of the communities that helped build modern Panama.