Chinatown

Chinatown

Welcome to Chinatown

The oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside of Asia are in San Francisco's Chinatown on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street in California. Other than Chinatown, this area of San Francisco is the oldest and largest of the four significant Chinese enclaves in the city. As one of the oldest Chinese organizations in North America, it has played a key role in the history and culture of ethnic Chinese immigration in the continent. It is an enclave in which local customs, dialects, places of worship, social groups, and identities survive and continue to exist. Several parks, squares, churches, a post office, and two hospitals exist in the city. Due to affordable housing and familiarity with the culture, many recent immigrants chose to live in Chinatown. [8] Even though San Francisco's Chinatown receives more annual tourists than the Golden Gate Bridge, it is also a prominent tourist attraction. 

The origin of Americanized Chinese cuisines, such as chop suey and Dim Sum's popularity as a tourist attraction in San Francisco Chinatown is owed to San Francisco Chinatown restaurants. The first modern-style Chinese restaurant was founded in 1953 by Johnny Kan. Many of the district's restaurants have been on Chinese food TV programs, such as the well-known host of Chinese food television programs, Martin Yan.

Chinatown has been included in a variety of films, television series, stage productions, and documentaries, including The Maltese Falcon, What's Up, Doc?, Big Trouble in Little China, The Pursuit of Happiness, The Presidio, Flower Drum Song, The Dead Pool, and Godzilla.

One may find several renowned Chinese American writers born and raised in this area, such as Russell Leong. In contrast to common assumption, though the culture of Chinatown inspired her for her novel The Joy Luck Club and its movie, Amy Tan was not born and raised in this Chinatown neighborhood. Willie "Woo Woo" Wong, a notable basketball player in the 1940s, was born and raised in Chinatown. A neighborhood playground is named after him as a tribute to his athletic achievements. In 1867, when Bruce Lee was 18 years old, he returned to America, living in Chinatown in San Francisco for the first few months, before transferring to Seattle.