SF Chinatown: Much More Than Just Cheap T-shirts

If tourists don’t intend to go to China anytime soon, Chinatown is the least expensive and fastest way to have a taste of the Chinese culture and businesses.

Although business owners complain that money doesn’t get into their registers as fast at it used to, Chinatown remains one of the most visited sites in San Francisco. In a 2004 survey conducted by the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau, 51 % of hotel guests said they visited Chinatown.

However, the numbers don’t match with what the business owners say. “The business is not good anymore,” said Kee Fung Ng. “Tourists say they have no money.” Ng, who owns a Chinese art craft store on Grant Ave., says tourists used to leave his store with bags full of souvenirs. Now, Ng is about to retire and says it’s in part because the business is not running as well as when he started -30 years ago.

A business manager on Grant Ave. said the business had gotten slower over the past five years. “There were a lot less people at the Moon Festival than in the past,” said Ed Ng. Another retiring business owner, Quin Hsiao, said the business has gone done 20% over the past 30 years. Hsiao is now in the middle of a closing sale.

Jenny Fung, a part time worker in a shop located on Grant Ave., said about 80% of their income comes from tourism. “After summer it’s always slow and the business is not as good,” said Fung. “People think about it a lot before buying, and they buy only if it’s exactly what they want.”

“If we had to buy something it would really have to catch our eye,” said Pete Swanson, a 26-year-old newly wed on his honey moon coming from Minnesota. His 24-year-old wife, Mary Swanson, said their Chinatown budget would probably not exceed $50.

Rudy Guel, a 68-year-old tourist coming from El Paso, Texas, travelling with his wife said they didn’t really have a budget. “We’ve come here because our tour guide from yesterday said we could find $1.88 t-shirts and that they were the same quality as the ones at Fisherman’s Wharf.” The couple said they were just looking for a different experience and some good bargains since they don’t have a Chinatown in Texas.

By walking down Grant Ave. and staring at the entrance gate, most tourists miss the most authentic places of Chinatown. Indeed, most people never get to go to the multiple alleys that make San Francisco's Chinatown so unique.

Since most tourists stay only for a couple of days in San Francisco and only have a limited time in Chinatown, they limit themselves to the obvious. However, the alleys have a lot to offer. That is what owner and tour guide of the Chinatown Ghost Tours company talks about when she takes the most adventurous tourists out in the dark alleys. Indeed, Cynthia Yee, who created the business about four years ago, knows a lot of anecdotes about Chinatown’s most hidden places. “I started the business after a New Orleans trip,” said Yee. “I was just fascinated by their tours and I thought: what a perfect place for a tour; there is a lot of history to share.”

Yee’s family has always lived there, except for Yee herself who decided to move outside of Chinatown. Yee grew up in Chinatown listening to her father, uncle, and grandfather’s stories about the place. “Make a guess,” Yee said. “Spirits can’t turn left or right; what do people do to prevent the spirits from entering their home”?

Often, groups reach 12 to 25 people and they like to participate, said Yee. Yee said it’s better when there is a lot of people because when they throw the poppers to repel the spirits, it makes a lot of noise. The tour owner also knows a lot about the different businesses, the history of the underground and the neighborhood, and what goes on in the alleys at night and during the day when movie producers shoot The Pursuit of Happyness or some Jackie Chan stunt.

“Next time I go to Chinatown, I’ll see it with different eyes,” said Paola Pedroza, a 19-year-old tourist coming from Cupertino, California, who went on the Chinatown Ghost tour.

The Chinatown Ghost tour is not the only way –but perhaps the most educational– to visit Chinatown. Indeed, tourists can also go to the Chinese Cultural Center that hosts different exhibitions throughout the year –the current one being “Chinese Puzzles.”

There are other alternatives such as the Duck tours, the Grey line, or the Cable Car, and the Barbary Coast Trail, but these tours don’t focus on Chinatown and fail to show the public the authenticity of the second largest Chinese community in the United States.

Chinatown's Starter Kit

Entering San Francisco's Chinatown is like walking into another city. San Francisco stops at the Chinatown Gateway.

The architecture is so different from the one in the rest of the city that if people spend enough time in Chinatown they can forget they are in the Golden City. The houses –for the most part–resemble the ones in China. The lamp poles are also part of the landmarks.

This “city” within the city by the Golden Gate functions at a different speed and rhythm. It’s almost like Chinatown never sleeps.

Early in the morning, middle-aged people go to work, walking rather fast in the middle of a surprisingly big crowd of elderly people, who shop for groceries and talk on the sidewalks of Stockton Avenue.

By 9 a.m., lines are forming at the bakeries –especially at the Far Eastern Bakery and the Golden Gate Bakery, where older people talk about local gossip while waiting for their favorite pastries, such as the husband and wife cakes.

At midday, Chinatown doesn’t get any less busy. Tourists start arriving on Grant Avenue to see something different –something exotic that they’ll never see in other parts of the city.

Oftentimes, tourists walk around but are not as good buyers as they used to be, said Kee Fung Ng, an art business owner on Grant Avenue. “In the past, they would leave with a lot of big bags,” said Ng. “Now they say they don’t have money.”

Many of Ng’s competitors complain Chinatown’s businesses are decreasing.

Wandering in the area when tourists are present allows one to hear comments such as: “I can’t stand the smell anymore” or “These people really eat weird things,“ as the speaker points at some dried fish in a window.

Indeed, smells in Chinatown are different and persistent, and the whole culture might scare more than one foreigner away.

At night, the whole quarter is still filled with tourists except for a couple of remote areas that are only frequented by local residents.

A tour guide was telling one of her groups that tourists tend to be scared away by Chinatown at night.

Locals gamble in family association houses where the police never seem to get to. Also, on Saturday and Sunday evenings, men come to Portsmouth Square to play Mah Jong (Chinese domino) and drink beers. The police never seem to interrupt the drinking either.

Chinese people have a great sense of community and family and call people who have the same last name “cousin,” “aunt,” or “uncle,” said Cynthia Yee, the Chinatown Tour business owner.

Yee said they also believe in spirits and use different methods to scare them away. They use different colors (red), objects (mirrors, tigers, etc.), and rituals such as the dragon dance or the firecrackers, said Yee.