Chinatown Alleyways and Temples

The Dragon Gate features two prominent green tiled roofs, a smaller one above a larger one, supported by three stone archways. It serves as the formal entrance to Chinatown on Grant Avenue. Clayton Lee, who served as the president of the…

Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral features a prominent, needle-like spire that rises sharply above the corner of California and Grant. Built in eighteen fifty-four using bricks brought as ballast on ships from China, it served as the first…

Hang Ah Street is a narrow, sharply curving alleyway tucked into the hillside of San Francisco Chinatown. It holds the title of the oldest street in the neighborhood, predating the organized grid of the city. In the early twentieth…

The Tin How Temple sits on the fourth floor of a nondescript building on Waverly Place, marked by a bright red balcony and a hanging sign. It remains one of the oldest operating Taoist temples in the United States, founded in eighteen…

Portsmouth Square sits on a steep slope, marked by a dense thicket of elderly men playing intense games of Chinese chess while others practise tai chi in the morning light. This patch of concrete served as the original plaza for the…

The Kong Chow Benevolent Association building sits on Stockton Street with a distinctively ornate, multi-tiered pagoda roof that separates it from its neighbors. Established in eighteen fifty-four, it serves as the oldest district…

Spofford Street is a narrow, ninety-degree bent alleyway tucked between Clay and Washington streets. It is the heart of political and community life in Chinatown, defined by the balconies and red lanterns that lean over the pavement. Back…

The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory sits tucked into a narrow brick alleyway, marked by the constant, sweet scent of vanilla and toasted sugar drifting from its open door. Inside, workers hand-fold flat, hot circles of dough into the…