Chinatown
The history
The oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest outside Asia, anchored on Grant Avenue since Chinese immigrants settled here during the Gold Rush. Burned flat in the 1906 earthquake and rebuilt with the pagoda roofs and dragon lampposts tourists picture today — a deliberate look, designed by the merchant association to keep the neighborhood from being redeveloped out of existence. The Stockton Street Tunnel (1914) still carries traffic under Nob Hill and is lined with murals telling the neighborhood's history.
In brief
Chinatown in San Francisco is the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of the largest Chinese enclaves outside Asia. Centered on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street, it has been a hub of Chinese immigrant life since the early 1850s and remains one of the city's top tourist attractions.
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