Chinatown is home not only to many Chinese, whose families have lived here for generations, but also Filipinos, Hawaiians and newer arrivals from Viet Nam and Laos. The Chinese started arriving in Hawaii in large numbers in the mid 1800’s as plantation workers. Over time, many became successful merchants. Some of the early architecture from this period is still standing, despite the government’s drastic policy of burning of many homes in 1900 in an effort to rid the community of bubonic plague