San Francisco - Chinese Six Companies

The headquarters of the Chinese Six Companies in San Francisco is perhaps the most important institution in Chinatown. In the 19th century it recruited Chinese laborers, the so-called "coolies" - the word means roughly "hard labor" - to build the Transcontinental Railway.

Later it functioned as a sort of arbitrator to sort out quarrels between the Chinese. Today it has lost something of its former prestige but it is still of considerable social significance.