Chinatown disappears in developing East End

t rush hour Friday evening I went looking for Chinatown.

I knew it once had a vibrant crossroads at Seventh and H Streets, N.W. The streets going in all directions used to be lined with tasty, funky Chinese restaurants with Peking ducks hanging in the steamed up front windows. Chinese residents of the Wah Luck House at Sixth and H would shop at the food stores and get well at Dr. Lee’s offices up on I Street. You could buy ginseng from a Chinese herbalist. We even had a touch of organized Asian crime.