Local city information for Rowland Heights, CA

Rowland Heights is an unincorporated community of , in Los Angeles County, California, located in the San Gabriel Valley. The population was 48,553 at the 2000 census. Rowland Heights is an unincorporated community (not a city) dependent upon County of Los Angeles representation (County Board of Supervisors).

This area of the Los Angeles basin was once an inland sea before the last ice age. Many fossils can still be found around the area. One place that still has exposed fossils from ancient sea life that once swam this prehistoric sea is located behind the McDonald's on Stoner Creek Road across from the Stoner Creek Car Wash, which locals called fossil hill. Local kids would go there to find treasures, such as sea life encrusted in sand dollars.

The Mexican land grant Rancho La Puente was granted to John Rowland and William Workman in 1842. In 1868, John Rowland and William Workman divided Rancho La Puente, leaving Rowland the eastern half and Workman the western half. Rowland Heights was originally part of the Workman Temple homestead in California's rancho days. The original John A. Rowland homestead is now behind the 99 Ranch Market near the corner of Gale Avenue and Nogales Street. The homestead is no longer there and it's going to be developed into a commercial zone.

Rowland Heights has grown significantly during the 1990s. Originally built on a pig farm that covered much of modern day Rowland Heights, the Rowland Homestead was mostly orange groves until the eastward sprawl from Los Angeles spawned working-class communities and affordable housing developments then formed. As the 60 freeway was extended beyond the western boundary, the community continued growth equal to that of most communities in Southern California. Development next to the freeway, zoned for industrial investment, eventually helped to support the housing developments that continued well into the twenty-first century.

Since the 1980s, many upper-middle-class immigrants from Taiwan and South Korea have settled in the hillside homes of Rowland Heights (and in neighboring regions such as Hacienda Heights, Walnut, and Diamond Bar). Also, Rowland Heights has also attracted immigrants from mainland China because the area is advertised in China as having good homes and convenient shopping. Additionally, working-class Latinos have settled in the lower, flat sections. The city has developed an eclectic suburban "Chinatown" and "Koreatown", mostly in the form of upscale strip malls mostly on Colima Road, with another concentration around Nogales Street. There are several large Asian supermarkets - such as a 99 Ranch Market (billed as the chain's largest location during the late 1980s, but no longer), Hong Kong Supermarket, and Monterey Park-based Shun Fat Supermarket (a relatively recent development that replaced Vons market) - in the area. Also there are Korean supermarkets such as DoReMi Market (it used to be known as HanGook Market but changed its name recently) and Greenland Market.

Once predominantly Anglo and Hispanic, this area has gradually become one of the Chinese centers in the greater Los Angeles. Originally formed by the stream of business expansions from Monterey Park (now a heavily mainland Chinese enclave), which is the undisputed "Chinatown" of Los Angeles, Rowland Heights has become an area comparable to a "Chinatown" by itself largely populated by Taiwanese. Locals refer to Rowland Heights as "Little Taipei", due to its high concentration of Taiwanese restaurants and businesses. It has become the center for Chinese commercial and cultural activity in the southeastern region of the San Gabriel Valley. While Rowland Heights and adjacent areas are still predominantly waishengren (mainland Chinese refugees who fled to Taiwan in 1949), in recent years many mainland Chinese] emigres have also been increasingly purchasing homes and starting small businesses in the area. As an example, some eateries of Taiwanese cuisine are now actually opened by mainland Chinese. Additionally, there are several popular eateries in the area, including Supreme Dragon (serving mainland Chinese noodle and dumplings), a Taiwanese-style food court inside a strip mall, and Happy Harbor Seafood Restaurant (inside of the 99 Ranch Market center) as well as several trendy restaurants geared towards the young and affluent Asian population. More recently, a popular branch of the Taco Bell fast-food franchise very close to a local high school was replaced by a Vietnamese beef noodle soup (or Pho) restaurant, located at the corner of Colima Road and Otterbein Avenue.

Perhaps owing to Rowland Heights as the cultural center for the Chinese diaspora - thus far, mostly 49er Taiwanese with a growing number of mainland Chinese - and as the connection to and from northern Orange County (mostly to the city of La Habra), Fullerton Road in Rowland Heights is among the heavily traversed roads in the region with frequent gridlock.

As with most housing patterns in the Southland, pricier homes are usually found on the nearby hills, while more affordable housing is located close to the freeways. In this case, these are located near Highway 60 by the City of Industry.

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