In front of you is the gateway to the oldest Chinatown in North America still in its original location. It was dedicated in 1970 as a gift from Taiwan, and its central inscription carries a phrase associated with Sun Yat-sen, who raised funds in this neighborhood for the Chinese revolution of 1911: «All under heaven is for the good of the people».

1A neighborhood that held on

The first Chinese immigrants came with the Gold Rush and went on to work in the mines and on the transcontinental railroad. They were met with hostility: in 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first US law to shut out a group because of its national origin. It was not repealed until 1943.

2Chinatown after 1906

The 1906 earthquake and fire leveled the neighborhood, and some politicians saw a chance to move its residents far from downtown, to Hunters Point. The community refused and rebuilt on the same spot. Merchants such as Look Tin Eli commissioned buildings with pagoda roofs, curved eaves and bright colors, designed to draw visitors and make the neighborhood indispensable to the city.

The «Oriental» style you see along Grant Avenue was, in large part, a strategy: turn the neighborhood into an attraction so that nobody could take it away.

3What to look for

  • The dragons and fish crowning the green roofs.
  • The guardian lions on each side of the gate.
  • The pagoda-topped buildings at the corner of Grant and California Street, a short walk ahead.

Documented

The gate was dedicated in 1970; the Chinese Exclusion Act was in force from 1882 to 1943, and after 1906 the community rejected relocation and rebuilt the neighborhood where it stood.

Sources and credits

Chinese Historical Society of America; National Park Service, «1906 Earthquake: Chinese Displacement»; Philip P. Choy, «San Francisco Chinatown: A Guide to Its History and Architecture» (2012).

Photos:

  • The Dragon Gate to Chinatown on Grant Avenue: Ilkka Simomaa, CC BY 4.0.

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