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This section will deal with San Francisco's fascinating neighborhoods. While many cities claim to be a "city of neighborhoods", San Francisco certainly is. It's a very residential city - people live and work just blocks apart. Most neighborhoods are very clearly defined. It's easy to tell Chinatown from North Beach from Golden Gate Park and the Haight.
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North Beach
Haight Ashbury/Golden Gate Park
San Francisco's ChinatownMany large American cities have neighborhoods that are predominently Chinese American, and invariably these neighborhoods are called "Chinatown". But San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest. Created as immigrants from the Far East came to America - many to build the transcontinental railroad - San Francisco's Chinatown has stood since 1850.
The neighborhood is about 10 square blocks, though its influence and ethnicity stretch beyond that. It is an easy walk from just about anywhere in the city, so don't do as one tourist couple did and hail a cab from their Union Square hotel - they were about three blocks away.
Of all the neighborhoods, this is the one small children will enjoy - and understand - best. It's full of exotic smells, strange language and equally strange food. A word of warning, however. Not only is Chinatown a popular tourist destination, it's also an actual residential neighborhood. Put another way, people live here. So take pictures, enjoy the sites, but don't gawk and point. You are a visitor.
The neighborhood has two main thoroughfares - Stockton and Grant Avenues. You could spend the day walking up one and down the other. Of the two, Grant is more bustling and dynamic. Don't forget to investigate those side alleys, too!
If you start on the end of Grant Street closest to the Union Square shopping district, you will pass under the Dragon Gate. Walk all the way to the other end, take a right at Clay Street and you will end up at Portsmouth Square, where you will find old men practicing marital arts and a replica of the statue of freedom from Tianemen Square.
In between, you will find all kinds of shops. Many are touristy, selling trinkets and back scratchers and other oddities. Some are very much in the import business, where you will find purses, inexpensive silk clothing and really interesting stuff. Some are far larger inside than you would guess standing on the street, so make sure to investigate. You will not generally find high end shops, and in this age of global business, we see no reason to think you will get a better deal on cameras or jewelry or pearls here compared to your local mall.
There are lots of grocery stores, and it is great fun to look at the strange fruits and vegetables and guess what they are. Note there will be plenty of residents -- largely women -- shopping for the night's dinner, so stay out of the way. Kids will quickly notice the ducks and other fowl hanging dead in the butchers' windows. Sharp eyed children will note some delicacies, like turtles, are still very much alive.
It's best to have a bit of a family huddle before these sites become apparent. As mentioned above, this is a place where real people live, and they probably don't want you standing outside their favorite grocery story screaming "eewwww!" and pointing any more than you would like them to stand outside your grocery store and do the same thing. Perhaps dead ducks - or live turtles - are not to your taste. But be a polite tourist.
On the same subject, note there are a number of stores selling what kids call "poppers", usually a box for 25 cents. These are small, harmless and legal noisemakers made of tissue and gunpowder. You throw them on the ground and they "pop". It's up to individual parents to decide whether to purchase them, but understand once you do, your child may lose all interest in culture in favor of throwing paper on the ground at the feet of strangers.
Food here is fun and very exotic. While you cannot expect your server to speak English, generally the head waiter or host will. Many restaurants employ hawkers to stand out front and invite reluctant tourists to take a table. Most have photographs of the food on the menu (at least at the door) so you get some idea what you are getting into.
So long as you have no food allergies, everything should be safe to eat, even if you're not quite sure what it is you just ate. One of the more mainstream restaurants is the Golden Dragon at 841 Washington Street. It often hosts musical acts and the food is good. Because we are a website that puts safety and fun first, we should in all honestly point out the restaurant was the scene of a terrible shootout between Asian gangs more than 30 years ago. Go and enjoy, you will be fine.
For the very squeamish, the Chinese bakeries serve interesting but strange-food-free pastries, and some restaurants specialize in Dim Sum, small plates of food literally translated as "touch the heart". Waitresses will come around with carts and offer the small bits of food. You point at what you want -- and you will probably have no idea what it is -- and then the waitress will stamp your card. You then pay as you leave based on how much you ate. It's a great way to taste all kinds of different things. The best Dim Sum, ironically, is not in Chinatown, but close by at Yank Sing's two upscale locations, at 101 Spear Street (in a large skyscraper) and 49 Stevenson Street. Both are a reasonable walk away.
Chinatown is also home to the Chinese Fortune Cookie, which is, interestingly enough, not from China. While there are lots of origin legends, the generally accepted story is that a Japanese San Franciscan invented them in the turn of the century for his restaurant at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. Chinese people living in China had never heard of such a thing.
Regardless,
the cookie is now very much Chinese. The Golden Gate Cookie
Factory, hidden away in Chinatown in the Ross Alley, makes tens of
thousands of them for use in restaurants. You can visit and watch the women
create the cookies. You don't so much watch as glance - there's
usually a line and the host will quickly shoo you out the door with a
free sample. For a suggested 50 cents, you can take a picture.
We apologize -- our other neighborhood reviews are coming soon!
Tom and Barbara from Kansas City say: Our favorite picture of the whole trip (and the one that causes the biggest "wows" at home) is of our crab fishing adventure. Thank you!Found a clean restroom? Good eating spot? A tip for future adventurers?