Chinatown, San Francisco

Chinatown, San Francisco is the oldest Chinese enclave in North America and one of the largest Chinese communities outside Asia. Centered on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street in San Francisco, California, it holds the distinction of being the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of the largest Chinese enclaves outside Asia. Since its establishment in the early 1850s, it has been important and influential in the history and culture of ethnic Chinese immigrants in North America, retaining its own customs, languages, places of worship, social clubs, and identity. Officially, Chinatown is located in downtown San Francisco, covers 24 square blocks, and overlaps five postal ZIP codes; it occupies an area of roughly half a mile long by a quarter mile wide, with boundaries running approximately from Kearny Street in the east to Powell in the west, and from Broadway in the north to Bush Street in the south. The neighborhood is also a major tourist attraction, drawing more visitors annually than the Golden Gate Bridge (as of 2013).

Origins and the Gold Rush Era

The first Chinese arrived in San Francisco in 1848 — a man and two women — and only two years later, 20,000 Chinese arrived in what immigrants called "Gold Mountain." In January of 1848, gold was discovered in the Sierra foothills, and the California Gold Rush began. When word of the discovery reached China, many men left their homes and took ship for California, with San Francisco serving as the port of entry and the place where miners obtained provisions before heading inland to the gold fields. The Chinese arriving in San Francisco came primarily from the Taishan and Zhongshan regions as well as Guangdong province of mainland China, doing so at the height of the California Gold Rush, with many working in mines scattered throughout the northern part of the state.

On August 28, 1850, San Francisco's first mayor John Geary officially welcomed three hundred "China Boys" to San Francisco at a ceremony in Portsmouth Square. In 1851, 2,716 Chinese emigrated to California, but the following year — driven by large-scale crop failures in China — 20,026 arrived at the customs house in San Francisco, with many of these immigrants staying in the city and living and working in the area around Portsmouth Square and Dupont Street (now Grant Avenue). By 1853, the neighborhood, having already been named "Little Canton," began being referred to as Chinatown in local newspaper articles.

Chinatown contains blocks and streets laid out in the first official mapping of the city. Grant Avenue, then called Dupont Street before the 1906 earthquake, is the oldest street in San Francisco.

The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in the mid-1800s also resulted in a large increase in the Chinese population of San Francisco. Hundreds of Chinese men had been brought in to work on building the railroad, and when the line was completed in 1869, many moved to the city. In the 1850s, Chinese pioneers, mainly from villages in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong, immigrated in large numbers to San Francisco, initially drawn by the California Gold Rush and the building of the first transcontinental railroad, and settling in Chinatown for refuge from hostilities in the West.

Discrimination, Exclusion, and Resilience

Despite the community's contributions to California's economy and infrastructure, Chinese residents faced severe and coordinated legal hostility from local and federal governments. A series of laws were passed in San Francisco specifically targeting Chinese residents: the Sidewalk Ordinance of 1870 prohibited the use of poles to carry merchandise on sidewalks; the Cubic Air Ordinance of 1871 required more than 500 square feet of living space, resulting in hundreds of Chinese being jailed; and the Laundry Ordinances of 1873 and 1876 imposed fees on anyone who carried laundry without a horse-drawn wagon.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years and making exceptions only for travelers and diplomats. The Act also denied Chinese residents already in the United States the ability to become citizens, and Chinese people traveling in or out of the country were required to carry a certificate identifying their status or risk deportation. It was the first major U.S. law implemented to prevent all members of a specific national group from immigrating to the United States, and it significantly shaped twentieth-century immigration policy.

Chinatown was a segregated area, as thoroughly segregated as Black districts of the South during the same time period. Chinese residents could not become citizens through naturalization, could not present testimony in court, could not marry a white person, and could not live outside Chinatown except in laundries or as domestic servants. Discrimination became especially intense during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, not only in San Francisco but also throughout the West, with one consequence being that Chinese from small towns across the region flocked to the relative safety of San Francisco's Chinatown.

Strong organizations of mutual support — including the consolidation of several district associations into the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, commonly known as the "Chinese Six Companies" — were formed to provide aid, mediate disputes, and protest anti-Chinese legislation. The Chinese Exclusion Act remained in effect until its repeal on December 17, 1943, during World War II.

The 1906 Earthquake and Reconstruction

The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, and the fires that broke out across the city in its aftermath, did more harm to the Chinese community than any legislative action could, destroying thousands of homes and businesses in Chinatown. Many Chinese-Americans were also among the dead. However, the city's birth and immigration records were also lost during the disaster, and many of San Francisco's Chinese immigrants took advantage of the loophole to claim American citizenship, enabling them to send for their families to join them in the United States.

After the earthquake destroyed much of Chinatown, the community resisted relocation efforts and rebuilt the neighborhood, creating a new architectural style that blended Chinese decorative elements with American foundations, transforming Chinatown into a tourist destination. Look Tin Eli led an innovative design vision, working with American architects to create buildings that would fascinate tourists. These buildings had standard American architectural foundations with Chinese decorative elements on top, such as the Sing Chong and Sing Fat Bazaars, which featured pagodas — something usually seen only on religious buildings in China.

The rebuild was so successful that it had a further unintended effect: other Chinatowns around the world began to be redesigned to incorporate the new "Oriental" features of San Francisco's, with one of the first to feel the influence being Los Angeles, where a new Chinatown was constructed in the 1930s after the demolition of the nearby "old" one. As the Chinese Exclusion Act was still on the books, Chinese immigrants arriving in San Francisco in the years after the earthquake had to be processed at the immigration center at Angel Island.

Demographics and Community Life

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. In the 1970s, the population density in Chinatown was seven times the San Francisco average. During the period from 2009 to 2013, the median household income was $20,000, compared to $76,000 citywide, with 29% of residents below the national poverty threshold.

As of 2015, two-thirds of residents lived in one of Chinatown's 105 single-room occupancy hotels (SROs), 96 of which had private owners and nine were owned by nonprofits. There are two public housing projects in Chinatown: Ping Yuen and North Ping Yuen.

Working-class immigrants from Hong Kong began arriving in large numbers in the late 1960s. Despite their status and professional qualifications in Hong Kong, many took low-paying employment in restaurants and garment factories in Chinatown because of limited English. The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 further loosened restrictions on immigration and fostered another wave of immigration, presenting new opportunities for many Chinese and other Asians to escape political oppression at home, further bolstering the population of Chinatowns across the United States.

Most residents are monolingual speakers of mutually unintelligible varieties of the Chinese language: historically Hoisanese, and now primarily Cantonese with some Mandarin. Today, Chinatown serves as a residential and cultural hub, particularly for elderly immigrants who find solace in affordable housing, familiar customs, and community support.

Landmarks and Points of Interest

Chinatown contains some of San Francisco's most recognizable architectural and cultural landmarks, drawing millions of visitors each year.

Dragon Gate (Chinatown Gate)

The Dragon Gate is a south-facing gate at the intersection of Bush Street and Grant Avenue, marking a southern entrance to San Francisco's Chinatown. Built in 1969 as a gift from the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the style of a traditional Chinese pailou, it became one of the most photographed locations in Chinatown. Its design came from Chinese-American architect Clayton Lee, who modeled it after the ceremonial village gates of old China. Across the top, four carved Chinese characters proclaim: "All under heaven is for the good of the people."

Portsmouth Square

A major focal point in Chinatown is Portsmouth Square. Since it is one of the few open spaces in the neighborhood and sits above a large underground parking lot, the square is used by tai chi practitioners and men playing Chinese chess. A replica of the Goddess of Democracy used in the Tiananmen Square protest was built in 1999 by Thomas Marsh and stands in the square; it is made of bronze and weighs approximately 600 pounds.

Tin How Temple and Waverly Place

Waverly Place has been nicknamed "The Street of Painted Balconies" because of its beautiful architecture and cultural importance; it houses historic temples and benevolent associations that have served the community for generations. The Tin How Temple at 125 Waverly Place, filled with incense, is the oldest Taoist temple in San Francisco; its sacred space is dedicated to Mazu, the Chinese sea goddess known as Tin How in Cantonese.

Ross Alley and the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory

Ross Alley stands as San Francisco's first alley, with centuries of fascinating history. Known historically as the "Street of the Gamblers," its establishments had reinforced doors to slow down police raids. Tunnels under Chinatown connected the buildings, though these vanished in the 1906 fire. Ross Alley was also frequently the scene of tong warfare and hosted opium dens. Today, Ross Alley is the location of the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory.

Chinese Historical Society of America

The Chinese Historical Society of America is housed in a building designed by Julia Morgan as a YWCA, at 965 Clay Street. The Chinese Culture Center is a community-based nonprofit organization located on the third floor of the Hilton San Francisco Financial District; it promotes exhibitions about Chinese life in the United States and organizes tours of the area.

See Also

• North Beach, San Francisco
• Portsmouth Square
• Angel Island State Park
• 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
• Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association