Chinatown, San Francisco facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chinatown
Neighborhood
Chinatown businesses line Jackson Street, with the Bay Bridge in the background.
Chinatown Location in San Francisco
Country	United States
State	California
City-county	San Francisco
Population  (2000)
• Total	34,891
• Estimate  (2013)	34,557
Time zone	UTC−8 (Pacific)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−7 (PDT)
ZIP Codes	94108, 94133, 94102, 94111, 94109
Area Codes	415, 628

The oldest Chinatown in North America is located on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street in San Francisco, California. It was established in 1848 and is important in the history and culture of ethnic Chinese immigrants in North America. Chinatown has kept its customs, languages, places of worship, social clubs, and identity. There are two hospitals, several parks and squares, numerous churches, a post office, and other buildings. San Francisco's Chinatown is also a famous tourist attraction. Each year, more people visit Chinatown than the Golden Gate Bridge.

Geography and location

Washington Street in Chinatown with Transamerica Pyramid in the background.

The neighborhoods of North Beach, and Telegraph Hill are where San Francisco's Chinatown is located. The area itself is about a half mile long by a quarter mile wide. It covers 24 square blocks and has two postal ZIP codes (94108 and 94133).

Stockton Street

Two main streets run through Chinatown: Grant Avenue (都板街) and Stockton Street (市德頓街). Grant Avenue has the famous Dragon Gate and St. Mary's Square with a statue of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen; a war memorial to Chinese war veterans; and stores, restaurants, and mini-malls that attract tourists.

Stockton Street is not visited as often by tourists. It is more like traditional Hong Kong, with its produce and fish markets, stores, and restaurants. Buildings are usually three to four stories high, with shops on the bottom floor and residential apartments above them.

The one-block open space in Chinatown called Portsmouth Square is busy with activity. It sits above a large underground parking lot.

Demographics

According to the San Francisco Planning Department, Chinatown is "the most densely populated urban area west of Manhattan," with 15,000 residents living in 20 square blocks. Income levels are much lower within Chinatown than within the rest of the city. Most residents speak only their dialects of the Chinese language, usually Cantonese and some Mandarin.

Demographic history

Grant Avenue during Chinese New Year.

Many immigrants from Hong Kong began arriving in San Francisco in the late 1960s. They had to take jobs that did not pay well because of their limited English. Because of overcrowding and poverty, other Chinese areas have been established within the city of San Francisco. These outer neighborhoods have been settled largely by Chinese from Southeast Asia who travel to Chinatown to do much of their shopping.

History

The Street of Gamblers (Ross Alley), Arnold Genthe, 1898. The population was predominantly male because U.S. policies at the time made it difficult for Chinese women to enter the country.

The headquarters of the Chinese Six Companies

San Francisco's Chinatown was the location where many immigrants arrived from southern China. From the 1850s to the 1900s, San Francisco's Chinatown was where many Chinese immigrants entered the country. Most Chinese shopkeepers, restaurant owners, and hired workers in San Francisco's Chinatown were male. Many Chinese found jobs working for large companies like Central Pacific. These men worked on the Transcontinental Railroad.

In 1882, the United States Government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. It was the first immigration restriction law aimed at a single ethnic group. The act was repealed during World War II by the Magnuson Act.

In March 1900, a Chinese-born man who was a long-time resident of Chinatown was found dead of bubonic plague. Chinatown was quarantined and the San Francisco Board of Health came in to look for cases; burn property; and sanitize buildings, streets, and sewers within Chinatown. After protests, the quarantine was lifted. The plague lasted four years and killed 113 people, almost all from a ten-block area of Chinatown.

In 1906, the Chinatown neighborhood was completely destroyed in an earthquake that leveled most of the city. The famous Sam Wo restaurant opened in 1912. By 1915, Chinatown was mostly rebuilt.

The War Brides Act allowed Chinese-American veterans to bring their families outside of national limits. This led to a major population boom in the area during the 1950s.

During the 1960s, Chinatown experienced more changes. Another wave of immigrants arrived and many stores moved from Grant Avenue to Stockton Street. Stockton Street had lower rents and better transportation because of the Muni trolleybus line.

Culture

Institutions

San Francisco's Chinatown is home to the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (known as the Chinese Six Companies). The CCBA was set up to help Chinese people relocate and travel to and from the United States and to speak on their behalf throughout the U.S.

The Chinese Culture Center is a community-based non-profit organization located on the third floor of a Holiday Inn. The Center promotes exhibitions about Chinese life in the United States and organizes tours of the area.

Events

The San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival and Parade was begun in the 1950s. It includes art shows, street dances, martial arts, music, and a fashion show.

The Autumn Moon Festival celebrates seasonal change and the opportunity to give thanks to a bountiful summer harvest. It is held each year during mid-September and is free to the public.

Traditional Chinese funeral processions are held in Chinatown. A marching band plays songs and is followed by a car showing the picture of the person who has died.

Fame

San Francisco Chinatown restaurants are considered to be the birthplace of Westernized Chinese cuisine. Dishes like Chop Suey and Dim Sum were introduced to Americans.

Chinatown has served as a setting for several movies, television shows, plays and documentaries including The Maltese Falcon, Big Trouble in Little China, The Pursuit of Happyness, The Presidio, Flower Drum Song, The Dead Pool, and Godzilla.

Chinese-American writers such as Russell Leong and Amy Tan grew up in Chinatown. Tan's experiences growing up in the neighborhood inspired her book The Joy Luck Club and the following film.

1940s basketball player Willie "Woo Woo" Wong grew up in Chinatown. A local playground is named after him.

Actor Bruce Lee was born at San Francisco Chinese Hospital. He moved to Hong Kong three months later. When he was eighteen, he returned to the United states and lived in San Francisco's Chinatown for the first few months before moving to Seattle.

Transportation

Cable Car 56 ascends Nob Hill from Chinatown along California Street; prominent buildings shown include the Transamerica Pyramid, Sing Chong Bazaar, Hartford Building, and Old Saint Mary's Cathedral.

San Francisco cable cars have long served areas of Chinatown. The modern system serves the southern (along California Street) and western (along Powell Street) sections of the neighborhood.

The Stockton Street Tunnel was completed in 1914 and brought San Francisco Municipal Railway Streetcar service to Stockton Street. After the tracks were removed, the overhead wires were maintained, and buses replaced streetcars along the route.

The Broadway Tunnel was completed in 1952. It connects Chinatown with Russian Hill and Van Ness Avenue to the west.

The 49-Mile Scenic Drive is routed through Chinatown, with particular attention paid to the corner of Grant and Clay.

Interesting facts about Chinatown, San Francisco

• Chinese tradition says that firecrackers were used to scare away evil spirits. Since firecrackers are illegal in Chinatown, stores sell Pop Pop boxes containing small packages that make a popping sound when thrown onto the floor.
• Tourists can watch fortune cookies being made at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory.
• There are many herbal pharmacies in Chinatown that teach about and sell herbal medicines.
• Old St. Mary’s Cathedral was constructed in 1854. It is the oldest Catholic cathedral in California.
• All of the bricks for Old St. Mary’s Cathedral were imported from China.
• The first Chinese to arrive in San Francisco were one man and two women in 1848.
• The only photos known to have survived since before the 1906 earthquake were taken by Arnold Genthe.

Images for kids

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  Sacramento St.; 唐人街: literally "Tang people street"

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  The Street of the Gamblers (Ross Alley), Arnold Genthe, 1898. The population of Chinatown was mostly male because U.S. policies at the time made it difficult for Chinese women to enter the country.

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  Officers of the Chinese Six Companies

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  The headquarters of the Chinese Six Companies on Stockton

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  Main immigration building on Angel Island

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  Looking east down Clay St. at the Great Fire on April 18, 1906: Arnold Genthe

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  Dragon Street Lamp on Grant Ave.

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  Chinatown (facing north from just south of the corner of Grant and Commercial) in 1945.

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  View north along Grant Avenue, approximately taken from the sidewalk in front of 645 Grant (1965).

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  The Dragon Gate at Grant and Bush, now a prominent landmark, was dedicated in 1970.

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  Imperial Palace Restaurant in 2010. The Imperial Palace replaced the Golden Dragon in the same space at 816 Washington.

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  Dragon on Market, 2011

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  Funeral procession in Chinatown along Grant with marching band, taken facing south near the corner of Grant and Jackson, 2016

See also

In Spanish: Chinatown (San Francisco) para niños