Next stop...CHINATOWN!
Grant Avenue is Chinatown's "Main Street" and the intersection of Grant and Bush, with its ornate, dragon-guarded gateway, marks the southern entrance to Chinatown.
Although the Dragon Gate looks like it could be as old as Chinatown it was actually installed in 1969, a gift from the government of the Republic of China.
The 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco completely destroyed Chinatown. The Chinatown that grew from the ashes was built with an eye toward to attracting tourists and the trade that would bring.
There were as many outdoor markets or stores as there were inside ones.
The streets of Chinatown are busy and colorful.
By now we were getting hungry. We had been handed flyers on the street for a restaurant which offered a buffet for $5.99. Now you think that would have been a clue huh? $5.99 for lunch? You can't eat at McDonald's for $5.99.
We found the place and went in. Oh. My. God. What were we thinking?
NONE of it looked good to me. I didn't see pepper steak anywhere, I didn't see beef and broccoli, what kind of Chinese restaurant is this? I kept asking myself if this was the Chinese Year of the Rat.
See this plate? This is what Karen DIDN'T eat!
I had the pleasure misfortune of picking out the only thing on the whole buffet that I would eat, broccoli. It was cold. It was bad, it was really, really bad. We all left hungry. And wondering where the closest McDonald's was.
Note to self: Next time listen to the voice screaming in your head to run!
Our next task was to find Ross Alley. Luckily it was off the street we were already on so we only had to walk up the street.
We were in search of the GOLDEN GATE FORTUNE COOKIE FACTORY. We walked past it a couple of times. I looked inside one doorway and saw this tiny little room and was beckoned to come in. I had found it. I called to Karen and she too crowded into the small area with me. We were offered Fortune Cookie "seconds" as a treat. These are fortune cookies that broke coming off the mold or for some reason are not usable. Then again there were some that looked just fine, maybe they were pulled because a lot of us I kept going back for seconds.
This tiny little "factory" has been supplying fortune cookies for Chinatown and around the world since 1962. What you see in the picture below is the factory, in its entirety.
Within a few steps of the front door the fortune cookies are being made. Three women sit there and take the flat, circular cookies off the hot cookie press. A fortune is picked out of a pile sitting at their workstation and held along side the flat dough. Next it is shaped over a steel rod in the shape of a fortune cookie. The whole process takes mere seconds.
I had to pay fifty cents in order to take a picture. I don't know if it was fifty cents per picture or not. For the one below I just held the camera waist high and clicked the button on the camera. I got quite good at this as you'll see in later pictures. Did you know that fortune cookies are not even a Chinese thing? In fact, they reached the restaurants of China in just the 1990's and are known as Genuine American Fortune Cookie's. Who knew? Who woulda guessed?
Monday is washday,,,,even in Chinatown.
Some of the stores were so colorful.
....and some just junkie overwhelming.
Some shops, like this "art gallery" were completely outside. I didn't see any gates to cover these at night so each one must be put up and taken down each day. I wouldn't want that job!
The United Commercial Bank building has quite a history to it.
The community’s main link to the old country was the Chinese Telephone Exchange, now the United Commercial Bank. This is the site of the first public telephone pay station in 1891, a switchboard was installed in 1894.
Chinese thought referring to people by number was rude so operators had to know everyone by name, address and occupation—to resolve same name conflicts—in addition to needing to speak five Chinese dialects and English. And to think that today we have to press one to listen to an automated voice speak in English.
The Chinese Telephone Exchange building was rebuilt in 1909 after the 1906 earthquake and operated until 1949 when rotary dial phones replaced switchboards. In 1960 the Bank of Canton bought and restored the Chinese Telephone Exchange building.
We went into one shop and were told right away, "No Pictures". We saw lots of signs like that and heard those words a lot. It didn't stop me. Most of these pictures following are "shot from the hip" if you will.
I don't know what these things are, what they are used for, but the colors caught my eye and they were at the right height to have a picture taken.
These silk scarves were beautiful and if I remember correctly,,,, quite pricey.
The streets were lined with gift shops and restaurants.
Some buildings were very ornate.
Karen and I ventured into one store and I wasn't two steps inside and they saw me with the camera. Right away I heard, "no pictures". Ah, wrong thing to say! I had to have pics now. I don't know what I took pictures of....you can see for yourself.
They were so adamant, I wonder what these things are!
Now I probably wouldn't have taken pictures of things in jars that I don't even have a clue what it is I'm looking at but when I'm told NO PICTURES! as soon as I walk in the door....well, I'm sorry, I just can't help it.
Here's another shop,,,another no picture zone...another shot from the hip pic. Hmmm, looking at some of the things in this picture,,,,I can see why they didn't want pictures taken. Case in point, look at the painting of the woman on the left hand side near the top. WHAT is growing out of her head?
Chinese Lanterns.
A BIG Chinese lantern.
When we were in the "grocery" section of the stores I noticed that most people did not use bags, paper or plastic. In fact, no bags at all were used.
Watch for: We EXPERIENCE San Francisco, Part 3.
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