San Francisco - Alison Bing [53]
Chinatown is now a major economic boon to the city as one of its top tourist attractions, but many residents scrape by on less than $10,000 a year – hardly the ‘Gold Mountain’ suggested by the name for San Francisco in Cantonese, though fortunes are made daily at Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company. Better-off residents tend to leave Chinatown, new arrivals move in, and the cycle begins anew. Each night as the crowds of visitors thin out and the sun sets on Chinatown, the strains of a Chinese orchestra rise from Spofford Alley and ballroom dancers convene in social halls to glide across the floor and past all the odds.
Dragon’s Gate marks the grand entry of Chinatown on Grant Ave, which runs parallel to Stockton St. Both head uphill through the heart of Chinatown on their way from Union Square to North Beach. To the east, Kearny St divides Chinatown from the Financial District, while North Beach overlaps Chinatown at Broadway.
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top picks
CHINATOWN
Waverly Place
Spofford Alley
Portsmouth Square
Chinese Historical Society of America Museum
Chinese Culture Center
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WAVERLY PLACE Map
1, 30, 45; California, Powell-Mason, Powell-Hyde;
There was no place to go but up in Chinatown after 1870, when local laws limited where Chinese San Franciscans could live and work. Temples were built atop the barber shops, laundries and neighborhood associations lining Waverly Pl, making their presence known with brightly painted balconies festooned with flags and lanterns.
Tien Hou Temple ( hours vary) atop 125 Waverly Pl was built in 1852, and the altar miraculously survived the 1906 earthquake and fire to become a symbol of community endurance. Drop by and pay your respects; entry is free, but it’s customary to leave an offering for temple upkeep.
CHINESE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA MUSEUM Map
415-391-1188; www.chsa.org; 965 Clay St; adult/senior/child 6-17yr $3/2/1, 1st Thu of month free; noon-5pm Tue-Fri; 1, 30, 45; California, Powell-Mason, Powell-Hyde;
Picture what it was like to be Chinese in America during the Gold Rush, transcontinental railroad construction or the Beat heyday at the nation’s largest Chinese American historical institute. Intimate vintage photos, an 1880 temple altar and personal artifacts are seen alongside the Daniel KE Ching collection of thousands of vintage advertisements, toys and postcards conveying Chinese stereotypes. Temporary art shows are across the courtyard in this graceful 1932 landmark building, built as Chinatown’s YWCA by Julia Morgan of Hearst Castle fame.
SPOFFORD ALLEY Map
1, 15, 30, 45; California, Powell-Mason, Powell-Hyde;
Sun Yat-sen once plotted the overthrow of China’s Manchu dynasty here at number 36, and during Prohibition, this was the site of turf battles over local bootlegging and protection rackets. Spofford has mellowed with age; it’s now lined with senior community centers. But the action still starts around sundown, when a Chinese orchestra strikes up a tune, the clicking of a mah-jong game begins, and beauty parlor owners and florists use the pretense of sweeping their doorsteps to gossip.
PORTSMOUTH SQUARE Map
733 Kearny St; 1, 15, 41, 45; California;
Since apartments in Chinatown’s old brick buildings are small, Portsmouth Sq is the neighborhood’s living room. The square is named after John B Montgomery’s sloop, which pulled up near here in 1846 to stake the US claim on San Francisco, but the presiding deity at this park is the Goddess of Democracy, a bronze replica of the statue made by Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989.
First light is met with outstretched arms by tai-chi practitioners. By afternoon toddlers rush the playground slides, and tea crowds collect at the kiosk under the pedestrian bridge to joke and dissect the day’s news. The checkers and chess played on concrete tables in gazebos late into the evening aren’t mere games, but 365-day obsessions, come rain or shine. Chinese New Year brings a night market to the square, featuring Chinese opera, calligraphy demonstrations and cell-phone charms of the goddess