/Self Guided Graffiti And Street Art Walk Through Chinatown Ottawa
A Self-Guided Graffiti & Street Art Walk Through Chinatown, Ottawa | OTTAWALLS.art
neighborhood guide
A Self-Guided Graffiti & Street Art Walk Through Chinatown, Ottawa
The stretch of Somerset Street West between Bronson and Booth holds one of the highest concentrations of graffiti and street art in Ottawa. Walking this route, you are hit immediately by the scale and variety of the work, featuring everything from a massive karaoke queen to a panda mosaic made of smaller pandas. Most of these pieces stem from Chinatown Blossoms, a multi-year partnership between the local BIA and the Ottawa School of Art. It is easily one of the most walkable street art routes in the city. You can use the Ottawalls map and filter by Chinatown to map out the full trail, including the hidden side-street murals.
Ottawa's Chinatown runs along Somerset Street West between Bronson Avenue and Booth Street, with Bell Street North cutting through the middle of the neighbourhood's most concentrated mural zone. Most of the pieces here sit directly on Somerset or within a half-block of it, making this one of the most walkable mural routes in the city.
Walking this route, you are hit immediately by the scale and variety of the work. From a karaoke queen painted across a storefront, a panda built from a mosaic of smaller pandas, and two large koi fish resembling a Yin and Yang, there is a ton of art to see. Chinatown has more public art per block than most of Ottawa, and a lot of it traces back to Chinatown Blossoms, a public art partnership between the Somerset Street Chinatown BIA and the Ottawa School of Art that has brought a rotating series of murals to the strip over several years. Most pieces in the neighbourhood are funded through the BIA and the City of Ottawa.
Ottawalls has documented many murals in Chinatown. This route covers stops from east to west along Somerset. Open the Ottawalls map and filter by Chinatown to follow along and see even more murals not listen in this piece.
Stop 1: Welcome to Chinatown, 700 Somerset Street West
Yi Chang 常怡 painted Welcome to Chinatown in 2026 for the City of Ottawa's Street Seats Pilot Program, which reclaims short sections of roadway for public use. The piece features a Peking Opera mask in a detailed red headdress with the text "Welcome to Chinatown" in gold cursive on a blue background. Commissioned by the Chinatown BIA.
Welcome to Chinatown mural by Yi Chang at 700 Somerset Street West, showing a Peking Opera mask
Stop 2: The Gateway Mural, Cambridge Street North at Somerset Street West
Cairn Cunnane painted The Gateway Mural in 2025 on the wall of the Somerset and Cambridge parking lot. It depicts the Chinatown Gateway arch as seen from Bronson Avenue, with a dragon running in front while a police officer clocks its speed on radar and other officers manage onlookers in the background. Co-sponsored by Ottawa Police Service and the Somerset Street Chinatown BIA.
The Gateway Mural by Cairn Cunnane, showing a dragon running in front of the Chinatown arch while a police officer holds a radar gun
Stop 3: Home of the China Doll, Somerset Street West
Home of the China Doll pays tribute to the China Doll, a karaoke host who became a Chinatown institution through Saturday night performances at 651 Somerset Street West. The Kwan family has run the spot since 1971, and it has long doubled as a venue for art shows and community events. The mural references the China Doll's signature accessories and performance style.
Home of the China Doll mural in Chinatown, Ottawa. The mural references the China Doll's signature accessories and performance style.
Stop 4: Mural by Anastasia Boguslavskaya, 637 Somerset Street West
Painted in 2013, this panda mural by Anastasia Boguslavskaya is one of the oldest documented pieces in Chinatown's archive and was surfaced through a community submission to Ottawalls. The design features a panda composed of a mosaic of smaller pandas, a detail that's easy to miss at a glance.
Panda Mural by Anastasia Boguslavskaya at 637 Somerset Street West
Stop 5: Three Works by Yi Chang 常怡 (637, 755, and 823 Somerset Street West)
Yi Chang is the most represented artist along this stretch of Somerset, with three works in close proximity beyond the Street Seats mural at Stop 1.
The 2024 mural at 637 Somerset Street West is found on the side of a beauty salon. It shows a traditional Chinese landscape in strong blues with visible brushwork, and the fisherman in the foreground is deliberately facing the business, a reference to the Chinese cultural association between fish and abundance.
Mural by Yi Chang at 637 Somerset Street West in Ottawa's Chinatown, showing a traditional Chinese landscape in deep blues with visible brushwork and a fisherman facing the building
At 755 Somerset Street West, Chang and her sister Shi erected a bronze sculpture in June 2025, timed to the 140th anniversary of the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The piece shows two Chinese labourers on either side of a length of rail set above a map of Canada. One figure rests, the other swings a sledgehammer. The rail curves upward to 3.4 metres, forming the shape of the Chinese character 人, meaning human, as an abstract memorial to the roughly 17,000 Chinese workers who built the railway between 1880 and 1885. Chang was born in Changchun, China, studied at the Ontario College of Art and Sheridan College, and opened Art Flow Gallery on Somerset Street in 2011 before the pandemic forced its closure. Full story via the Kitchissippi Times.
The mural at 823 Somerset Street West, painted with her husband Christopher Richard, depicts a Chinese New Year's Eve family dinner, commissioned by the owner of the restaurant on that wall to reflect the multigenerational spirit of the space.
Stop 6: Yin and Yang Koi Fish, 819 Somerset Street West
Emilie Darlington painted Yin and Yang Koi Fish at the corner of Booth and Somerset in 2025, commissioned by the Ottawa Chinatown BIA. Two mirroring koi fish face each other against a blue brick background, referencing the yin and yang symbol. Darlington also has documented work in Hintonburg and the Glebe.
Yin and Yang Koi Fish mural by Emilie Darlington at the corner of Booth and Somerset in Ottawa's Chinatown, showing two mirroring koi fish facing each other against a blue brick wall,
Stop 7: 14 Bell Street North
At 14 Bell Street North, two murals share the same wall. Mique Michelle painted one in 2014, part of an early run of Chinatown work that also includes pieces at 60 Lebreton Street North and 641 Somerset Street West. A Franco-Ontarian artist from West Nipissing with many murals in Ottawa, her work spans community facilitation, international commissions, and public art for the NAC and the City of Ottawa. Her work also appears in both the Glebe and Hintonburg sections of the archive.
Look up for Emilie Darlington'smural on the same building, showing a bright sun and eagles higher on the wall.
Across the street, The Higher Ups, a collaboration between Dan Metcalfe and Pat Buck, painted a two-storey Chinese dragon that runs the full height of the building.
Two-storey Chinese dragon mural by The Higher Ups with Dan Metcalfe and Pat Buck, painted on a wall in Ottawa's Chinatown.
Stop 8: Maya Hum Mural, 761 Somerset Street West
Maya Hum is an Ottawa-based independent artist, illustrator, and arts educator whose practice spans painting, drawing, and design. Her public mural work consistently weaves human figures and natural imagery together, often addressing the experiences of communities that are underrepresented in public space. She also painted Racism is a Pandemic Too, a Bell Box mural in Hintonburg from 2021.
Keep the Archive Going
Several of the murals we have documented in Chinatown are still missing artist names, years, and full backstories. Browse the complete list on the Ottawalls map, and if you recognize a piece or know the story behind it, you can submit what you know here to help keep the archive accurate and alive!
