Chinatown - San Francisco, California
Mid-day is the best time to plan a trip to Chinatown. Everything will be open and the area will be full of people. Grant and Stockton are the main streets but if you only go down these, you will miss the best parts of this great part of San Francisco.
Don’t plan on driving to Chinatown and then finding a place to park because it just won’t happen. The cable car comes in to town at California and Grant or you can walk from Union Square or North Beach.
There are many different types of guided tours available that will provide you with some history and show you the most interesting parts of Chinatown. You can choose to go it alone and just walk around all day to the different parts, including the back alleys to see what is in Chinatown.
Some places in Chinatown you will want to see are:
The Tin How Temple - This is the oldest Chinese temple anywhere in America. It’s a Taoist temple that was established in 1852.
The Chinese Market - Located on Stockton Avenue and just as you would think this is an area similar to a farmers market. Locals come out on Saturdays to buy their groceries for the week so it’s normally busier then.
The Fortune Cookie Factory - See fortune cookies made the old-fashioned way, by hand. It’s located on Ross Alley.
Portsmouth Square - Children and adults of Chinatown use this historical site for all kinds of recreational events.
United Commercial Bank - Formally the Chinese Telephone Exchange Company it was the only foreign language telephone exchange in the United States.
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