La Chinesca is the old Chinatown of Mexicali — once the largest Chinese community in Latin America, settled by labourers who came in the 1900s to dig the irrigation canals that turned the Mexicali Valley into farmland. At its peak the district had its own newspapers, schools, gambling halls, and a vast network of basement tunnels.
The neighbourhood is faded but worth a wander: the old shops, herbalists, and tea houses are interspersed with modern Chinese restaurants that helped earn Mexicali its reputation for the best Chinese food in Mexico. The Museo de la Chinesca offers a small but well-curated history of the community, and walking tours of the basement tunnels can be booked through the museum. Centred on Avenida Reforma and Calle Altamirano, a few blocks from the border crossing.