San Francisco - Chinatown

The largest Chinese city outside Asia is in San Francisco on Grant Avenue between Bush Street and Columbus Avenue. The people are descendants of Asians, mainly railway workers, who settled here from 1850 onwards, just after the Gold Rush. With ever-increasing immigration from Asia in the last 30 years, Chinatown has experienced its greatest period of population growth. Since 1950 the Chinese population has increased from 30,000 to 100,000.

Almost completely destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, Chinatown was rebuilt entirely in the Chinese style and was soon even more attractive than before the disaster. Now with its temples, theaters, workshops, small businesses, stores, antique and souvenir shops, teahouses and pharmacies with their old nostrums, Chinatown has become one of the major sites of San Francisco.