Chinatown Heritage Mural

The Chinatown Heritage Mural Located at Oxford Street and Oxford Place is a replica of Chinese artist Wang Yun’s “Autumn Mountains with Travellers.” The piece is hidden away in an alley among closely clustered buildings. The street used to be ...

Chinatown Gate

The South Cove area that the Chinese immigrants turned into their home was once home to all of the different immigrant groups throughout Boston’s history, with the Chinese being the last group to move into Boston. The Chinese began immigrating ...

Dragon's Gate, Chinatown

This structure marks the official entrance into Chinatown, which was the main point of entry for Chinese immigrants who arrived during the gold rush. The immigrants, many of them from China’s Guangdong Province, provided services for the miners ...

Weaverville Chinatown

Chinatown business district was centered in this area. On September 10, 1874, fire destroyed everything from the corner of Highway 3 & Main Street to the Pacific Brewery, except four adobe buildings. Again, on September 30, 1905, fire destroyed all ...

Old Chinatown District--Circa 1890

In the 1850s, Chinese came to California, a land they called Gum Shan, meaning Mountain of Gold, for the same reason as other nationalities: to seek their fortune. As the placer gold played out, Chinese took jobs building railroads, dams, ...

Chinatown

Imagine coming to a country with only the clothes on your back, little money, and only a glimmer of hope. San Francisco's "Little Shanghai" is the informal capital city of the Chinese population of Northern California where Chinese immigrants came ...

Chinatown

San Francisco's Chinatown is the one of the largest Chinese communities outside of China itself, and one of the very first of its kind established in North America. During the mid-19th Century, economic and political hardships in China drove many ...

Chinatown

Civil War to Civil Rights

dragons to bring rain, prosperity and friendship

More than 280 dragons, crowned by 700 glazed tiles, look down from the Chinatown Friendship Archway before you. Symbols of the spirits that bring rain and prosperity in ...

The Burning of San Jose Chinatown

May 4, 1887

In Memory of

The Burning of San Jose Chinatown

May 4, 1887

On this site on May 4, 1887 a mysterious fire, deliberately set, destroyed San Jose's Chinatown. This was the largest Chinatown South of San Francisco. A community of bachelors ...

Chinatown

From 1872 to 1887, a large Chinese population occupied this block of Market Street. Despite considerable discrimination against them, the Chinese managed to survive within their insular community. By the late 1880's, as downtown businesses began establishing themselves along South ...