Walking Tours: North Beach and Chinatown

This is our last day in San Francisco and we have two tours scheduled. These are walking tours of North Beach and Chinatown. We ended up sleeping in and then we started to get our luggage ready for tomorrow's flight. I also got our boarding passes as well before we headed out for the day. We took a bus up to the North Beach area and got off at Washington Square at Union and Columbus. From here we walked around looking for a place to have breakfast. We found a place that looked pretty good and we put our names on the list. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for a table at Café Divine. It turned out to be pretty good and we had great views from the window. We ate a leisurely breakfast and talked about how nice this trip was.

Exercise or Dance at Washington Square Park

After breakfast we walked around Washington Square and did some people watching. There were lots of people out this morning - some playing with their dogs, some exercising, some dancing and some just sitting and reading. Then we crossed the street and went inside Saints Peter and Paul Church just for a look-see. After seeing the church we went to the little park at Union and Columbus to meet our tour guide for our first walking tour - North Beach.

City Lights Bookstore

The tour started and ended at Washington Square Park and took us all around the North Beach area. During the tour the guide pointed out places of interest and good restaurants. The highlights included Washington Square Park, The Stinking Rose, Saints Peter and Paul Church, Sentinel Building, Café Zoetrope, Beat Museum, City Lights Bookstore, Beach Blanket Babylon Street (where the play Beach Blanket Babylon is hosted), Café Jacqueline, Caffe Trieste, Mama's on Washington Square and the Vesuvio Café. This area was home to the Beat Generation - people who lived here were Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs. This was a great tour and an interesting area - next time we visit San Francisco we want to spend more time here.

Mural and Quote on the side of the Vesuvio Café

When this tour ended we hopped on a bus and took it back to Union Square to start our Chinatown tour. Turns out we had the same tour guide which was nice because we were already used to his style.

Chinatown Gate

This tour took us all through Chinatown into some of the back alleys and parks away from the main area of Grant Street. We saw lots of interesting things and heard some great stories. Some of the highlights were - Chinatown Gate, Waverly Place, Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, Kong Chow Temple, St. Mary's Church, Tien Hau Temple, Stockton Street Mural - Chinese Railroad Workers, Golden Gate Bakery, House of Nanking, Bonsai Villa, St. Mary's Square and Portsmouth Square. We stopped in at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory and we got hot samples and took some pictures.

Jun Yu

And next to the factory is a barber shop and the man that owns it sits outside and plays the ehru. He was out there when we passed and he was playing Christmas carols. You can hear him at Ehru in Chinatown. We also heard the story of Donaldina Cameron who saved young Chinese girls from prostitution - very interesting and heroic. Our tour ended on Grant St. at a shoppping mall and Thomas and I decided to find somewhere to eat while we were here. The tour guide really recommended House of Nanking. So we made our way over to the restaurant and luckily we didn't have to wait (apparently there usually is a line to get in). We got a table at the window where we could watch people passing by. We ended up sharing chicken chow mein and sesame chicken. It was so good and we really enjoyed this place. After a great meal we made our way back towards the hotel so that we could get packed and ready for our flight in the morning. But we took a quick detour along Sutter St. to the Hotel Vertigo to find lost sailor's and Bell Motel's Vertigo letterbox. We entered the hotel as if we were staying there and took the elevator to the box's location. I quickly located the box and found a secluded corner to sit and stamp in. Once the box was in place I took some pictures of the staircase which I could see would inspire vertigo. We left this hotel and returned to our hotel. We are now packed and ready for our flight home.

Hotel Vertigo Stairs