» Chinatown- San Francisco

The Chinese District of San Francsico is the second most important of the United States, after that of New York. Separated from the Financial District by Union Square, it is one of the most visited areas in the city. One reaches it passing through the “Chinatown Gateway”, the door of Chinatown, at the intersection of Grant Avenue and Bush Street. Here, the fluent language is Cantonese. With 200 000 inhabitants principally coming from China, Chinatown is in perpetual activity, even if in the past few years the number of inhabitants moving to the area are less “ethnic”. The first to arrive fleeing the famine and the war of Opium, landed in San Francisco in 1848. The principal monuments were built at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, the inhabitants of Chinatown love to preserve their traditions and ways of life.

To see: The ornate, traditonally decorated monument façades. The dressed-up parade of the Chinese New Year. The multiple souvenir shops and other bric à brac. The taï-chi training and other martial arts in the Clay Steet Park, early in the morning and the afternoon.

To do: Lunch or diner in the typical restaurants. Visit the Tien Hou Temple.