ABSTRACT
In the mid-1990s it seemed that Spain was a special case in the settlement pattern of Chinese immigrants owing to the size of their population and their economic activities (Beltrán, 1997). If we define Chinatown as a high concentration of Chinese population and business in a delimited geographical area (Light, 1972), then the Chinese community in Spain is now in the initial phase of concentration following a long process of dispersal settlement. This pattern of dispersal and concentration is in this case directly linked with the most important entrepreneurial activity of the Chinese, namely the catering trade.
