10 Most Popular Neighbourhoods in Manchester

Manchester's Chinatown is the second-largest of its kind in the whole of the UK. You'll find it heralded by a wonderful elaborate paifang gate on the intersection of Faulkner Street and Nicholas Street, around 10 minutes of walking from Manchester Piccadilly train station.

It's everything you might expect of a neighbourhood steeped in oriental culture and heritage. Walk past takeaways spots and you’ll be treated to the aroma of five-spice powder, oyster sauce and sesame oil. You can dine at lantern-lit Canton cookhouses. The shops are filled with exotic herbs and wholefood bags of rice. The highlight of Chinatown Manchester comes in February, though. Head in then to witness the dragon parade celebrating Chinese New Year.

The Northern Quarter is one you simply can't miss in Manchester. As the name implies, it's one of the northernmost of the inner districts of the city. Look for it along the Ring Road with the Arndale Centre to the west – that's about 10 minutes by foot from the main train station.

The area is considered the epitome of Manchester cool. Although it started life as a working-class slum in the Industrial Revolution, it's now alive with more bars and brewhouses than you can shake a local ale at. More than anything, the Northern Quarter is known for its live music scene. Manchester punk and Brit-pop all grew to fame in the neighbourhood’s gritty bars.

Spinningfields mixes recreation and business between its modern blocks. Totally redeveloped after the turn of the millennium, the area enjoys a prime location on the side of the River Irwell, with Deansgate to the south and the town centre to the north and east.

Architecturally, Spinningfields shines with glass-fronted blocks and the odd skyscraper. They loom above wide and leafy streets that contain some of the most important buildings in the city, from the John Rylands Library to the Manchester Crown Court. There's plenty to do in Spinningfields these days, especially around the bar quarters of Quay Street and in the museums of the riverside.

Off-the-beaten-path Belle Vue is a vintage entertainment area in Manchester. It's located a whisker outside of the city centre, a little down the A6 road to the south-east. Getting there shouldn't be tricky – simply hop on the bus to Gorton or Hyde and it'll whisk you straight there in under 30 minutes.

Belle Vue is certainly best known for its clutch old amusements. There was once a sprawling fairground here, not to mention a Victorian-era zoological park that had chimps and rhinos in its menagerie. Today, the area still has some low-key attractions, in the form of a greyhound racing track, a leisure centre and the high-octane Belle Vue Speedway – one for the petrol heads.

Old Trafford is now synonymous with the mighty football stadium that stands in its midst. But it's also a whole cut-out of the Manchester metropolis. Most local fans of the Red Devils will know exactly how to get there, following the A56 and Trafford Road along the river to the south side of the Salford Quays.

If you're lucky enough to have tickets for a game, you'll be wanting the colossal terraces of Old Trafford Stadium, which looms up on the north side of the district. But there is actually much more to it than that. There are whole retail parks, a famous cricket ground, and oodles of charming neighbourhood parks to go and explore.

Trafford Park spreads to the west of the iconic football ground of Old Trafford. It's about 30 minutes on the tram or 15 minutes by car from the city centre, clinging to the bends of the historic Manchester Ship Canal. It's that prime location that helped it become the first planned industrial estate in the world back in the 1890s.

Fast forward to today and the area still reigns as one of the largest industrial estates in Europe. It's a veritable hubbub of commerce, with everything from tool sellers to tyre galvanisers to paint emporiums dotting its endless blocks. Shoppers might also be drawn to the out-of-town outlets of The Trafford Centre, which is just to the west.

Castlefield is an upcoming corner of central Manchester that channels a little of the energy of nearby Deansgate and couples it with a rich industrial history. It covers the weathered quays of the Bridgewater Canal on the south side of the centre, a stone's throw from the banks of the River Irwell.

The area retains touches of Victorian and Industrial Revolution architecture, with flyover railway lines and rusting iron girders. But there's also something modern to get stuck into, in the form of the cutting-edge Science and Industry Museum and the Factory art complex, where galleries mingle with sushi kitchens.

New Islington is one of the rising stars on the line-up of neighbourhoods in Manchester. Fringing Great Ancoats Street and running north towards the quieter outskirts on the Ashton Canal, it's seen huge investments and changes in recent decades.

That means you can look forward to wandering redeveloped quaysides that are dashed with green urban gardens and even birdwatching spots. There's a mix of enterprise and residential buildings, so you get that local buzz with also artisan bakers and whatnot. What's more, the Northern Quarter is just over the road when it's time for some wilder nightlife.

Openshaw has been touted as the next big millennial enclave of Manchester. With affordable property prices and a hearty community vibe, the area – located east down the Old Ashton Road about 15 minutes' drive from the Northern Quarter – is now feeling more abuzz than ever.

It's mainly residential. The rowhouses of old mill workers spread down the crisscrossing streets to meet some newer developments, all with a healthy dollop of parkland thrown in for good measure. Here, it's all about feeling the local northern character, drinking in neighbourhood pubs and escaping the hubbub of the heart of the big city.