San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of "the largest Chinese communities outside Asia". Established in the 1840s, it is a center of Chinese culture and activity in North America, offering many venues for the arts, film, music, photography and literature. Throughout this sprawling and densely populated area are gift and herbal shops, Chinese theatres, joss houses (temples), pagoda roofs, dragon parades, and we...
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San Francisco's Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of "the largest Chinese communities outside Asia". Established in the 1840s, it is a center of Chinese culture and activity in North America, offering many venues for the arts, film, music, photography and literature. Throughout this sprawling and densely populated area are gift and herbal shops, Chinese theatres, joss houses (temples), pagoda roofs, dragon parades, and well over 300 restaurants, making it a self-sustaining "city-within-a-city". In contrast to many mixed-Asian communities today, San Francisco's Chinatown retains its Chinese ethnic identity even after 160 years—it is one of the largest Chinese communities of its kind in the United States. It is a major tourist attraction — drawing more visitors annually than the Golden Gate Bridge.
Chinatown has been traditionally defined by the neighborhoods of North Beach, and Telegraph Hill areas as bound by Bush Street, Taylor Street, Bay Street, and the...
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