All About Chinatown Tours

11/14/2024

In the herbal pharmacy on yesterday's tour, we didn't know what it was, and how to use this product!

11/05/2024

For Halloween, one of these Kansas City Chiefs lookalike works as a tour guide for me. This is really a question for my other tour guides who can guess who this person is!

10/06/2024

Chinatown community members are eager for better representation in the race for district supervisor in this November's election:

Chinatown challenges impact supe race

10/02/2024

Hooray for entrepreneurs opening Mr. Mahjong’s, a unique bar/restaurant to San Francisco’s downtown and Chinatown neighborhood!

‘We’re all in’: S.F. entrepreneurs open Asian fusion bar in bet on downtown recovery

09/25/2024

If you are a fan of martial arts icon Bruce Lee, you would know his studio was in Oakland, CA. Read how the city of Oakland honored Bruce Lee at the site of his former studio:

Oakland named an intersection "Bruce Lee Way" to honor the martial arts legend's legacy and connection to the city.

09/14/2024

One more day to enjoy the Moon Festival events in Chinatown on September 15:

Annual San Francisco Chinatown Autumn Moon Festival, Presented by the Chinatown Merchants Association | Join us for nonstop entertainment, food vendors, mooncakes, kids activities, lion dancing, and much more!

09/14/2024

The Moon Festival, a harvest festival celebrated in Chinese culture, occurs on September 17. Celebrations include hanging colorful lanterns, eating mooncakes, and viewing the moon, which is often the brightest all year.

Here is one of the famous stories told about the Moon Goddess Chang E: Hou Yi was a great warrior who saved the earth by shooting down 9 suns which were scorching the earth. As a reward for his heroism, Wangmu, the Queen of Heaven, gifted him an elixir that he could drink and ascend to heaven where he would become a god.

Unfortunately, a jealous rival witnessed the whole ceremony and when Hou Yi was out hunting, kidnapped his wife Chang E and demanded that she give him the elixir. Knowing that she would be killed if she didn’t give it to him, she drank the elixir and immediately flew out of the window and into the sky.

Enjoy this photo of Moon Goddess Chang E lookalikes.

09/10/2024

Did you or anyone you know play competitive volleyball in San Francisco’s Chinatown?
Enjoy this article about the longest running Asians-only sport in North America, since the 1930’s:

Another S.F. team with championship legacy

08/27/2024

If you are interested in the story of a Chinese American son researching his immigrant father’s experiences, check out his book “Sons of Chinatown: A Memoir Rooted in China and America.” What started out as a yearlong project took 10 years of research.

Tracing generation of ‘paper’ sons, daughters

08/17/2024

Today, August 17, 2024: Hungry Ghost Festival in Chinatown

Art Rituals Performances Parade Art Rituals Performances Parade Festival Map August 17th, 20244:00PM - 9:00PMSF Chinatown Program Schedule4:00PMFestival Kick Off Parade📍Chinatown - Rose Pak StationGhost King Parade4:00PM - 9:00PM Activation & Performance Across Chinatown📍Portsmouth SquareStage...

07/24/2024

Synchronicity? On my tour yesterday, Harley Gittleman was carrying a duduk, a double reed woodwind instrument that people from Turkey and Iran are familiar with. My other two guests were from Turkey and Iran! He played us a piece that my guests were familiar with.

If you’re curious to learn more about this musician: soundcloud.com//harleygittleman

07/23/2024

https://thebolditalic.com/north-americas-oldest-chinatown-is-in-san-francisco-1cc2e752881d

SF’s Chinatown has overcome significant adversity since 1849. Its history reflects a blend of cultural heritage and unyielding resilience.

07/16/2024

San Francisco’s Portsmouth Square; Chinatown Public Health Center; and the Him Mark Lai Branch Library is about to receive more than $2 million in newly commissioned artwork from the San Francisco Arts Commission through 2027. Exciting!

Chinatown makeovers plan to use art from community

07/12/2024

It’s Shark Week on CNN and Discovery Channel!
It started on July 7 and ends soon.

However, it was sad to see this “food item” for sale on Stockton St. on my tour yesterday.
The going price was $10 for the whole shark.

It made all of us sad to see, as leopard sharks grow slowly, mature late, and because they don’t reproduce plentifully, catching too many leopard sharks can cause their populations to rapidly decline.

07/03/2024

My guests last week saw a play in Baltimore about Afong Moy, the first recorded female Chinese immigrant to the United States. What year did she arrive, and what city did she arrive in?

05/11/2024

At the end of our tours, we often direct guests to try the restaurants on the 600 block of Jackson St., between Grant Ave. and Kearny St. Here is a listing of these restaurants created by the Chinatown Merchants Association, aptly named
"Restaurant Row."

Art and cultural news from Chinatown and Beyond.

05/05/2024

By the late 1800’s, Chinese Americans were already involved in civil and constitutional protections of Americans in the courts. Read on to learn about a few of these landmark cases and how these files are being saved to preserve these historical documents led by David Lei, a San Francisco Chinatown activist, and Anna Eng, a historian and lecturer at UC Berkeley.

Preserving the forgotten or little-known U.S. history is the goal of a volunteer project to scan and digitize the archives of Chinese organizations.

04/23/2024

The title of the article is exactly what is going on: Lion dance sparks San Francisco’s Chinatown dispute:

Lion dance sparks S.F. Chinatown dispute