Ross Alley, the alley of secrets

Walk in slowly and listen. Ross Alley is one of the oldest alleys in San Francisco: it was laid out around 1849 and named after a merchant, Charles Ross, who lived here.

1Iron doors and gambling halls

In the late nineteenth century, this alley was notorious for its gambling dens and brothels. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred Chinese laborers from entering the country and left a neighborhood made up largely of men on their own, far from their families. The gambling halls were guarded by heavy iron doors and lookouts, so much so that a city ordinance banned the doors in 1889. Rival gangs, the so-called tongs, fought over the trade.

2The Chinatown tunnels

This is the birthplace of one of the city's most repeated legends: a network of secret tunnels beneath Chinatown, with opium dens and escape passages. The basements were real, but historians have never found a tunnel network. In the late 1800s, some guides took tourists to fake opium dens staged especially for them, and that fed the myth.

What this alley really does hide is a fortune cookie factory that has been running since 1962.

Oddly enough, the fortune cookie isn't Chinese: researchers link it to Japanese crackers, and San Francisco and Los Angeles both claim its arrival in California. A mock court in the city ruled in 1983, naturally, in favor of San Francisco.

3What to look for

• The factory at number 56, where the cookies are folded by hand.
• The barred doors and windows, a reminder of another era.
• The murals and signs, which have appeared in films such as «Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom».