Dragon Gate
The ceremonial entrance to the oldest Chinatown in North America
The story
Before you is the Dragon Gate, the ceremonial entrance to San Francisco’s Chinatown. It is the oldest Chinatown in North America. It grew up in the early 1850s, when people from all over the world, China included, came to California for gold. The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed the neighborhood. While rebuilding it, local merchants hired American architects and asked for an “Oriental” style, with pagodas on the roofs, to attract tourists. The gate is much younger than the neighborhood. In 1967 the city held a design contest, and the architect Clayton Lee won it. The Republic of China on Taiwan donated the materials: the tiles, the roofing and the stone lions. The gate was dedicated on the eighteenth of October 1970. It has three openings, all facing south. The large central one is for cars, the two side ones for people on foot. Look up. The fish on the ridge stand for prosperity. The dragons stand for power and fertility, and the ball between them for the Earth. Above the central opening are four characters: “All under heaven is for the good of the people.” This was a favorite motto of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China. A stone guardian lion sits by each side opening: the male on the left, to the west, and the female on the right, to the east. Beyond the gate begins Grant Avenue, the main street of Chinatown.
Visiting
Grant Avenue at Bush Street, open to view at any time. Chinatown itself lies north along Grant Avenue. City Lights Bookstore is about fifteen minutes away on foot.
Sources
- San Francisco Public Works — Dragon Gate
- Wikipedia (EN) — Dragon Gate (San Francisco)
- Wikipedia (EN) — Chinatown, San Francisco
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