Since the 1970's, recent immigrants who settled in the town of Monterey Park were not merely sojourners, as were many during the 1800's. Rather, the new arrivals came to stay, embark on a career and raise a family. This resulted in Monterey Park becoming the first suburban Chinatown in the United States as shown by the 1986 Census count: more than 50 per cent of the population were Chinese (photo today).