Lunar New Year: Free walking tours educate visitors, locals about San Francisco Chinatown
SAN FRANCISCO -- Each year, thousands of locals and tourists visit San Francisco's Chinatown, especially during Lunar New Year to watch lion dancers, eat good food or buy some souvenirs. But outside of what they see, how much do people really know about one of the city's oldest neighborhoods?
For many people, their first education begins with a simple and free walking tour with SF City Guides. Bill Louie, a retiree, now volunteers as a tour guide, and since 2015, he has given 225 tours to more than 2,000 people.
"I love San Francisco, and I love finding out about neighborhoods," said Louie. "And I love watching the look on people's faces when they learn something new for the first time."
We joined a recent tour with Louie that started in Portsmouth Square talking about the history of how most of the early Chinese immigrants came from Guangzhou, formerly known as Canton, and how the 1849 gold rush brought them to the United States.
"The Chinese nickname for California translated to Gold Mountain," said Louie. "And the gold rush was the largest voluntary immigration at that time."
The tour takes people from the steep streets to the back alleys of Chinatown - a 24 square-block neighborhood, that is home to some 40,000 people.
"Historic Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America," explains Louie. "It is one of the most densely populated urban areas in the U.S."
Much of the tour is spent explaining the Chinatown "family associations," SRO's (single room occupancy hotels), and the architecture of the neighborhood that evolved after the 1906 earthquake.
"The earthquake hit on a scale of 7.9 and devastated San Francisco and nearly wiped out Chinatown after three days of fires," said Louie.
He also takes visitors to neighborhood favorites like the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie factory, and shares tidbits about the city that most people would never notice, like the circular brick patterns found in the middle of intersections.
"Those are water reservoirs," Louie said. "So now if there is a fire, fire-fighters can remove that cover and extract water from the reservoir and put out the fire."
For Louie, who is Chinese American, he takes pride in showing off his city and neighborhood, especially when locals join his tour hoping to learn something new.
"I hope people will get a better understanding of the Chinese experience in America, to see us not as an unknown mass of people, but as individuals. I hope that is what comes across," said Louie.
The walking tours with SF City Guides are free and in association with the San Francisco Public Library. They ask for a $20 donation after the tour and offer 80 different neighborhood tours throughout the city.