Eden Center - A Center in Globalization

My husband and I decided to spend our Valentine's Day exploring The Eden Center in Falls Church, Virginia.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at one of the many restaurants and it was fabulous. I was very surprised to see such a huge location with so many restaurants in one place.
Eden Center is the biggest Vietnamese shopping center in the United States.  It houses over 30 restaurants, many cafe's and bakeries along with a few markets that sell just about anything Vietnamese.  40 years ago this location housed a few vietnamese stores but with the forward thinking of the owner, the areas surrounding the original buildings were renovated and the Eden Center grew and grew.

The Eden Center is a center of globalization with so much Vietnamese and Chinese influence such as the food.  The vietnamese influence is in each restaurant.  By bringing in the authentic flavors of the vietnamese cuisine it exposes other ethnicities to their culture.  Most people who visit the Eden Center come for the food and it is the easiest way the Eden Center shares in the globalization of he world.  

Eden Center continues to be a social gathering for the Vietnamese-American community.  The center holds festivals throughout the year to share in their culture with other residents in the area.  The social globalization that The Eden Center provides also bring in more revenue and increases the economy in the area.  This is evident as the Eden Center continues to grown and become a very diverse area with vietnamese and chinese influence.

As we walked around the area we noticed many different services available to the Vietnamese-American community such as tax services, travel agencies, telephone packages, pension services and investment opportunities.  This a invaluable service to the community for Vietnamese people and allows them to maintain contact with portion of life in America and even in other parts of the world.

Continuing a close relationship with the Vietnamese-American Community and the surrounding neighborhoods will continue to improve and expand this gem that can be found in the middle of the DC Metropolitan area.  The last 40 years had brought a huge growth in the globalization of the Vietnamese culture in the United States and the next 40 can be even better.