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San Francisco's Chinatown district is billed as the largest Chinatown outside of Asia. Whether this is true or not I can't confirm, but with a population of somewhat over 14,000 it certainly has the flavour of China! If you've got the time during your visit to the city a trip to Chinatown is well worth it. During the day the area bustles with activity, with shop-fronts along Grant Street - the main commercial thoroughfare featuring a bewildering array of Asian groceries - from fresh vegetables, to dried fish - as well as tourist and gift shops specialising in incense sticks, Chinese crockery, statues, and undoubtedly the sort of cheap trinkets that often fill up visitors suitcases! The picture above is the Chinatown Gateway - or Dragons Gate - built in 1970. The Chinatown Gateway spans Grant Avenue at the junction of Bush Street and really does signifiy the southern entrance to Chinatown.
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Of course one of the other things that brings visitors to Chinatown is the food. Whilst some of the restaurants on Grant Avenue might play the tourist card in place of real quality of food, I doubt that you would be disappointed by any dining experience in Chinatown. Don't think that the good restaurants are restricted to Grant Avenue either - there are great places on the surrounding streets as well. I would recommend making use of some of the fine dining guides that are available - either in print or online - rather than wandering the streets looking for a good restaurant - many of which are often very busy - when you could be shopping for more trinkets!
Some of the popular favourites are Tommy Toy's - one of the most expensive and best Chinese Restaurants in the city at 655 Montgomery. Alternatives include the Empress of China in the heart of Chinatown at 838 Grant, or Kan's at 708 Grant. Some of the better restaurant guides include:
SF Gate at http://www.sfgate.com/eguide/food/
SF Travel at http://www.sftravel.com/food.html
Or you could just try a search for san francisco restaurants on Altavista or Google.
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Most of the Chinese-styled buildings in Chinatown were constructed after the great Earthquake of 1906, but the area has had continual occupation by Chinese visitors and immigrants since the middle of the 19th Century when the Gold Rush drew them in their thousands. Grant Street is actually historically important to San Francisco as being the very first street of the village of Yerba Buena - the precursor to San Francisco. It was originally founded in 1835 with the erection of a canvas tent! By 1837 a more solid construction had taken its place and the street was called Calle de la Fundacíon or Foundation Street. The area was settled by the incoming Chinese immigrants during the Gold Rush of the 1850's, principally because the Eastern slopes of Nob Hill were too steep for horse-drawn carriages - and therefore had been overlooked by the more well-to-do residents!
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Chinese teas available for sale on Grant Avenue. A visit to Chinatown really is like a visit to another country - with Chinese language characters everywhere, Chinese - probably Cantonese - being spoken frequently, and with products for sale that you'll not find anywhere else in San Francisco. None of this is that surprising given that this is where San Francisco's Chinese community come to buy their produce, but it certainly makes a very pleasant change from McDonalds and Starbucks!
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