Chinatown

About Chinatown

San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest and best known Chinatown in the United States. Though it has become fragmented since the 1960s, it is still the heart of the Chinese community in San Francisco and indeed the Bay Area. Lying roughly in a triangle bounded by Grant and Broadway and Stockton and Kearney streets the Cinatown is a warren of small shops, alleys and Chinese markets. Non-Chinese usually stick to the main streets, but there are wonderful restaurants to be found in the alleys and byways of Chinatown, just as there is the chance to get a feel for the old Chinatown of the recent immigrant, the girls with bound feet, and the tightly structured Chinese family that made Chinatown what it is now, a vibrant, integral part of the cultural make-up of the city. The history of Chinatown is rich and varied: just walk down Grant Avenue.