Plateau Strategy
The story
San Francisco's Chinatown grew from the migrations that transformed California in the nineteenth century. Exclusion laws, discrimination and the destruction of the 1906 earthquake repeatedly threatened the community, yet residents and businesses rebuilt the neighborhood on the same ground.
The Dragon Gate at Grant Avenue and Bush Street is a ceremonial entrance rather than a boundary. Beyond it, the neighborhood continues through markets, family associations, temples, bakeries, restaurants and small alleys. Its life cannot be understood from one photographed arch.
Walk through the gate and keep going. Notice balconies, bilingual signs and daily errands alongside gifts for visitors. If time allows, turn into Ross Alley before returning south. The route then leaves the neighborhood for SFMOMA, where another kind of city collection waits.