This article examines from a historical perspective the various economic and social actions generated by the Chinese population in the area of Arica and Tarapacá during the first decades of the twentieth century. Using archival information and newspapers of the time, it is argued that although during the nineteenth century the Chinese experienced oppression under the Peruvian republic, after the Pacific War (1879-1883) a number of economic hubs related to the nitrate industry and to trade with Bolivia were formed. The Chinese population had an active participation in the regional markets and the movement of goods, besides establishing sociability networks and strategies to insert itself in a society in permanent change.