The Chinese community in France is planning to hold a parade June 20 in the Belleville neighborhood, in an attempt to highlight the need for heightened security in Paris' Chinese areas, oushinet.com reported today. Overseas Chinese students are invited to join in the demonstration.

On the night of June 1, a group of gangsters blocked the door of Belleville Hotel in Paris and robbed the Chinese people who left the hotel after attending a wedding ceremony. One person took out a gun and shot one of the robbers, who was injured.

The case shows how bad the security is in the Chinese areas of Paris. According to oushinet com, a Chinese website under Nouvelle D'Europe, the Chinese shops and travelers have recently been robbed more frequently. After the Belleville shooting, many Chinese students in France were scared and refused to go out to shopping areas or job interviews.

Belleville (literally "beautiful town") is a colorful, multi-ethnic neighborhood that is also home to one of the city's two Chinatowns; the other located in the 13th arrondissement, which is a sort of district in some French cities, near the Place d'Italie.

Since the 1980s, a Chinese community has been established there. There are many Chinese restaurants and associations, as well as stores offering Chinese products. A fairly large and popular outdoor market is held there every Tuesday and Friday along the Boulevard de Belleville, where many local Île-de-France farmers sell their produce.

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