[Originally written 1999. Updated 2004. -- Brian]

I'd heard good things about Chinatown, but it was tough to find. Instead I played (and bought) Big City, figuring that would be my city-developing game. Eventually I played this. I thought it was pretty good. I played it again and decided to purchase it.

Despite the theme, Chinatown is very different from Big City or Metropolis. You play entrepanuers starting up businesses in Chinatown. The map shows various buildings and lots in them, and there are tiles for businesses. Finally, you have money and tokens (to show who owns what). Overall the components are nice and functional. Although I'm not too happy with the money; all the denominations look the same.

On each of the 6 turns, you

1. Get lots and businesses,
2. Haggle and trade,
3. Build,
4. Collect money

First, each player gets dealt lot cards, of which they keep some. After each player decides which to keep, they mark them and then each player draws business tiles. Businesses could be restaurants, dry cleaners, radio stores, sporting goods, pharmacies, and whatnot. What is important about a business is how many tiles it takes to 'complete' it. So a restaurant is 3 tiles, while a clothing store is 6. There are 3 'extra' tiles of each type (which means that there could be two 'complete' restaurants, but only one complete clothing store).

After everyone gets their tiles, you get down to the meat of the game. Trading. You can trade anything in this game. Business tiles. Lots. Money. You can trade opened businesses (tiles and lots already in play)! Three way trades can be worked out. Future deals are not binding (although I suspect that playing with them as binding would be better. Haven't these people heard of contracts?). Once everyone swaps and is done, players build.

You put your businesses into your lots. If you have adjacent tiles of the same type, then they are one larger store, which is worth more. Having a complete store is a nice bonus. In the advanced game, a store only pays out if it has street access, which help differentiate the lots even further (as some don't have street access). Note that you don't have to build. Placing a tile commits you and you may be willing to forgo the money this turn to help your odds of completing a business (or just because the lot may be more valuable next turn if it's unoccupied)!

Then you collect payouts for each store. Additionally, each turn there may be a bonus payout (for tiles of certain numbers). A lot of gamers don't like these cards, and you can play without them. (Or lessen the payouts from $1,000 for each tile to $1,000 for each chain, as our group does).

Then you go through for 5 more turns. Most money wins.

I don't like Diplomacy. It's too long, ideally requires 7 people, has positions that are arguably inferior than other positions, etc. But I like negotiation games and Chinatown is a keeper. The deals get complicated quickly, and you to correctly value exactly how much a deal is worth. This also affects building decisions. Once you put a tile in a lot, the lot can change ownership, but the tile will always be there. So the decision is get quick money now versus maintaining flexibility later. I like the (reduced) bonus payouts, because I think that they make that decisions tougher, but I think that the game would work all 3 ways. Players must adjust their evaluations accordingly.

I do think the game can bog down, so I suggest using a digital timer (at say, 5-10 minutes) and when it goes off, no more deals. Especially if your group is slow. One other problem is that a player can track everyone's money, which means that player can know exactly how much he needs on the last turn to win (assuming that he calculates incomes for that turn). A time limit would make that calculation troublesome. Or you could allow for players to make their deals in private (which may actually be legal in the rules, I'm not sure). Obviously, with private deals players would see the lots and tiles changing hands (since lots and tiles are public info), but not money. And since deals often have a bit of cash, that can matter.

If you like negotiation games, consider Chinatown. I just wish I could get to play it more often (my wife dislikes negotiation games in general).

Update 2004.

For a while, I thought that Traders of Genoa was a superior negotiation game; but having recently played Chinatown again, I'm not sure. Chinatown is faster (and the time is less variable). Additionally, evaluating deals is easier, especially for new players. Chinatown seems to be a favorite of one of the local groups, I'm glad I sat in on a game recently. We played with street access, but without the bonus payouts. As with all negotiation games, a player who doesn't value items correctly can throw the game (unintentionally). However, quick talking determines who he throws it to...