China Town in San Francisco

Today we went to China Town. Aurora Picorrelli who is the owner of REO Training Solutions certification for Freddie Mac REOs and a member of WinDS (along with me and Nestor) and is a part owner of a brokerage in Texas- accompanied me and our little guy for our walk in China Town.

We have some items that needed to be replaced that I can only get in China Towns. Anytime I visit a city that has a China Town and you ask me what I want to do there, you can count on me saying, “ I want to go to China Town.”

We walked from the Fairmont Hotel up on the hill down three hills on California street to China Town and then walked almost all the way to the end of that side and back. It was a lot of fun.

In Florida the chinese food and the restaurants that serve chinese food are terrible compared to the west coast chinese food. I always look forward to getting some good chinese food when we get to a city on the west coast. The won ton soup is a night and day difference in taste, quality and style of cooking. So of course we had to take a side trip up one of the side streets to find one of those awesome hole in the wall kind of authentic chinese places to grab a bite to eat.

Oh my, then we walked those three steep hills back up to the Fairmont Hotel. Aurora and I wanted to take a cab up those hills but our little guy insisted we could all make it. Aurora is in great shape. I am not. But I said to myself I can do this, I may be slow and very overweight but I can do this. And I did!

San Francisco is a walking city and when I lived here I walked everywhere or took a bus. But I am much older now and live in a town where you drive everywhere:). But I made it up those three big hills!

According to the official San Francisco Chinatown website, "Grant Avenue is one of the oldest streets in Chinatown. Originally, it was named Calle de la Fundacion (street of the founding) in 1845...When California was ceded to the Union in 1846, the street was renamed Dupont Street, honoring an admiral from the USS Portsmouth. By the late 1800s, the street had gained an unsavory reputation being part of the Barbary Coast Trail along with Tong wars, sing-sing girls, and opium dens. After the 1906 earthquake, Dupont Street was upgraded and its image changed. It was changed to Grant Avenue to honor President Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States. Some older members of the Chinese community still call it "Du Pon Gai". Gai means "street" in Chinese"  

The history of San Francisco's Chinatown is a troubled one and not always full of "pretty" stories.  Although the Gold Rush was the real catalyst for major Chinese immigration to California, when the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, thousands were suddenly out of jobs and more came to the City looking for work.  At the same time, California experienced an economic depression (for which the Chinese were blamed).  In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which suspended the immigration of "laborers" and prohibited naturalization of the Chinese.  It wasn't until December 13th, 1943 (after 61 years) that the Act was finally repealed by then President Roosevelt.  Can you imagine?  A good historical read, if you're ever interested can be found in the following books: Immigration at the Golden Gate, and The Children of Chinatown.

On a lighter note, being an SF Native, and growing up with a mother who pretty much listened to Broadway musical record albums 24/7 (while hanging out at home), I have almost every Roger's and Hammerstein musical memorized song for song, word for word.  And if any of you remember "Flower Drum Song" from the late 50's (made into a movie in 1961), you'll understand why I can't walk or drive around Chinatown without hearing the music in the back of mind.   Then again, if I must be "cursed", I suppose this isn't such a bad spell to have to endure.  Enjoy the video I made this afternoon while tooling around the neighborhood.  Cheers.... 干杯 （gan bei）

A Visit to San Francisco's Chinatown

San Francisco's Chinatown is an amazing place to visit, and of the Chinatowns I've seen (New York, Boston, LA), the best in our country.

It is also reportedly the largest outside of Asia. 

We spend several hours strolling around San Francisco's Chinatown on Sunday, which included a mile or so of walking up and down some of San Francisco's famed hills (more up than down, it seemed, in the Pacific Heights area - photo at right) with fabulous views of Alcatraz, East Bay, Coit Tower and the Transamerica Building. 

Anyone who has visited San Francisco's Chinatown is familiar with the crowds of shoppers, numerous retail shops selling everything imaginable, plenty of fresh food and produce options as well as all sorts of things I always have a hard time identifying - mushrooms, sea cucumbers to name a few. 

There are a zillion choices of places for Dim Sum (always fun especially if you don't go with any pre-conceived notions of what to expect), great bakeries and all sorts of business services. 

San Francisco's Chinatown is a shopping experiences not to be missed, even if you are just window shopping. But you'd be hard pressed not to find something to take home. 

Learn more about San Francisco's Chinatown than I could ever tell you. And enjoy the tour below.

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A new friend that I met in Orlando this year, Pam Fox, was in California to visit her family and asked if I could meet with her to talk about her website. Pam is a lovely person. She is opening two stores where she lives in Florida as well as maintaining her staging business. Of course I wanted to have lunch with Pam while she was in the area, and where better than in San Francisco?!

Pam's son lives near Golden Gate Park, so I was looking for an internet cafe near there. I was not successful, but I did find Golden Gate Perk, which is located near the entrance to Chinatown. It was a very relaxed atmosphere, perfect for talking about websites and getting reacquainted. The staff is very friendly. You can even rent a computer if your laptop is not available.

Golden Gate Perk is also a Korean deli and coffee shop. I tried the Bibimbop pictured here. It is brown rice with 7 different vegetables and an egg on top. It was so simply delicious I wondered why I don't eat this healthy all of the time. Then I remembered, it is because I'm lazy. Pam tried the beef curry and said it was delicious as well.

Since we were so close to Chinatown, my mother decided we needed to shop for silk jackets. Pam came along and we spent some time shopping together. San Francisco's Chinatown is the largest Chinatown outside of Asia and is also the oldest Chinatown in North America. It is one of San Francisco's top attractions.

Here is my mother, Terrylynn, with Pam:

Here Pam and I made a new friend. He was in the shop and saw us taking photos, so he decided to join us:

Sculpture for sale:

So a day in the city with a new friend, talking about websites and shopping. That was a good day! I came home with a new silk jacket and silk shirt as a bonus. The only down-side was that Rhiannon was still away at camp... she loves Chinatown and is very unhappy that we went without her!

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