A Self-Guided Chinatown Walking Tour
San Francisco · 5 Stops · approx. ½ mile · 2–3 hours
This tour was born out of a longer piece about the Great Star Theater, the last remaining Chinese theater in any Chinatown in the United States. Chinatown is the most densely visited neighborhood in San Francisco, but most of its visitors stay on Grant Avenue. This walk takes you in a rough square starting on one side of Chinatown, at the Great Star Theater, then around streets that are quieter, more local, and stacked with history that the souvenir shops don’t tell you about. At one point you’ll land smack in the middle of Grant Street where you can veer off to do a little souvenir shopping.
The five stops span 170 years of San Francisco history. Tap that link for the Google map. Most of these stops have been here longer than the Golden Gate Bridge.
This tour was created as a companion to the Wild Radish essay on the Great Star Theater. The theater is currently facing a funding gap. Please consider buying a ticket or donating at greatstartheater.org.
BEFORE YOU GO
Start time: 11:00 AM
Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday
Avoid: Mondays (City View closed) and Thursdays (Tin How Temple closed)
Cash: Required at nearly every stop. ATMs are plentiful throughout Chinatown.
Accessibility: Tin How Temple (Stop 2) requires climbing four flights of stairs and is not wheelchair accessible. The rest of the walk is mostly flat.
Shop early: Chinatown shops tend to close around 4:00 PM. If you want extra time to wander and shop, start an hour earlier.
Stop 1 GREAT STAR THEATER
636 Jackson Street, between Kearny and Grant
The star of the tour. You won’t miss the eye-catching facade with pagoda details, deco block and aqua tile fascia, neon signage, and a 1960s-era marquee. This is the last remaining Chinese theater in any Chinatown in the United States, open since 1925, and it is still very much alive.
Check the program board and consider coming back for a show. The calendar runs from Cantonese opera to cabaret to the Candlelight concert series. Across the street, Z&Y Restaurant is worth a dinner reservation before an evening performance. Be forewarned: it’s spicy.
The theater is currently facing a funding gap. Consider buying a ticket or making a donation.
11:00 AM · 30 minutes · 636 Jackson St · Check schedule online · Donation appreciated
Stop 2 WAVERLY PLACE & TIN HOW TEMPLE
125 Waverly Place, between Washington and Clay
As you walk from Jackson toward Waverly, you’ll pass under red lanterns strung above the alleyways. Follow them wherever they lead. They mark streets worth seeing. They symbolize love, hope, and prosperity, and they’re another reason to return after dark.
Waverly Place is one block west of Grant Avenue and a world apart from it. It’s quieter, more local, lined with painted iron balconies in red and green and gold. Sun Yat-sen lived on this block during his years in exile. Walk its full length and look up.
Tin How Temple is mid-block, at the top of four flights of stairs. If you’re lucky, you’ll hear Cantonese opera singers rehearsing on the second floor as you climb. At the top, the air is thick with incense. There will be an attendant and a donation box.
The temple is dedicated to Mazu, or “maternal ancestor”, the sea goddess and protector of seafarers, deified form of a Fujianese woman named Lin Mo who lived in the tenth century CE. She is thought to roam the seas with two generals, protecting those who pray to her.
The temple has been in this location or nearby on Waverly since at least 1852, founded for Chinese immigrants arriving by ship and departing across the Pacific. It is the oldest institution on this tour by just four years.
For $2 you receive a bundle of incense to light at the oil lamp and offer at each altar, one stick at a time. Swirl the bundle so the smoke rises. You start and end on the balcony. Take in the view. For $3 you can also receive a packet of lucky tea or a folded paper lotus.
11:35 AM · 25 minutes · 125 Waverly Place · Open Tue/Wed/Fri until 2 PM · Mon/Sat/Sun until 3 PM · Closed Thursdays · $2 incense donation · another $1 for tea packet or paper lotus · No photography · Not wheelchair accessible
Stop 3 MOW LEE SHING KEE & CO.
774 Commercial Street, between Kearny and Grant
Mow Lee has been on Commercial Street since 1856 which makes it the oldest continuously operating business in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and one of the oldest in the city. It is a narrow, fragrant shop selling dried goods, preserved foods, and Chinese sausage (lap cheong). It looks the way it has for a very long while.
Pick up a length of lap cheong to take home. You’ll need three links for a proper pot of sticky rice with sausage, but Mow Lee sells them two at a time, so you’ll end up with four. That’s fine. (The recipe is in the Mow Lee post at Wild Radish.
Before you leave the block, look east. Commercial Street gives you a straight-on view of the Ferry Building clock tower. It’s one of only two streets in the city where you can see it this way. The other is Market Street.
12:05 PM · 20 minutes · 774 Commercial St · Open daily 9 AM–5 PM · Cash only
Stop 4 NOW TO EAT — WALKING OR SITTING, IT’S YOUR CHOICE
Eastern Bakery or City View Restaurant
Option A: Walking · Eastern Bakery
720 Grant Avenue at Commercial
You’ll smell Eastern Bakery before you see it: that warm, sweet drift of lotus paste, roasted peanuts, and toasted pastry pulling you toward the hand-lettered signage that has barely changed since 1924. It is the oldest Chinese bakery in the United States. A busker playing erhu, the traditional two-stringed Chinese fiddle, sometimes sets up nearby. Orlando, the owner, might be the one to serve you. He speaks English, Chinese, and Spanish and is as friendly as advertised.
Eastern is best known for mooncakes, made on the premises and available year-round. This is a rarity, since most bakeries only carry them at the Mid-Autumn Festival. They also do a pineapple bun they’ll warm for you: extra sweet, extra crunchy. Take it and keep walking. There is lots of shopping around here. Get yourself a wok from the Wok Shop next door. I especially love wandering around Old Shanghai about a block away at 645 Grant Ave.
12:30 PM · 10–15 minutes · 720 Grant Ave · Open daily 11 AM–4 PM · Cash or Zelle · Popular items sell out by mid-afternoon
Option B: Sitting · City View Restaurant
33 Walter U Lum Place (off Kearny at Clay)
Dim sum is a traditional Cantonese dining experience consisting of sharable plates of dumplings, buns, and small dishes, ordered as you go. City View is one of the best places to do it in this neighborhood. They relocated from Commercial Street in 2023 and moved from cart service to made-to-order, which means everything comes from the kitchen fresh.
City View sits directly across from Portsmouth Square, San Francisco’s first public plaza, established in 1835 when California was still under Mexican rule and the city was still called Yerba Buena. The American flag was raised here in 1846, the square was renamed after the ship that carried the Americans over, and shortly after, Yerba Buena became San Francisco. It’s a good spot to eat and let that history settle.
12:30 PM · ~60 minutes · 33 Walter U Lum Place · Tue–Fri 11 AM–2 PM · Sat–Sun 10:30 AM–2:30 PM · Closed Mondays · Arrive by 12:30 PM on weekdays
Stop 5 LI PO COCKTAIL LOUNGE
916 Grant Avenue, between Washington and Jackson
The red lacquered doors are set into a frame of fake rock, which tells you what kind of place this is: unpretentious, kooky, and a little theatrical — from a bygone era when Chinese culture was Anglicized and blown out for the sake of entertainment. Li Po has been on Grant Avenue since 1937, a survivor of the Chinese nightclub scene that surged during World War II when GIs flooded San Francisco before shipping out to the Pacific, and quietly outlasted every other club on the strip.
Inside: a wraparound bar, faded red leather booths, a golden Buddha, Chinese lanterns. The neon hexagonal sign out front appeared briefly in the 1947 film The Lady from Shanghai and was restored in 2018. According to Trina Robbins, author of Forbidden City: The Golden Age of Chinese Nightclubs, Li Po is the only club from that era that still looks exactly as it did when it opened.
The bar is named for Li Bai, one of the great poets of the Tang Dynasty, a man famous for his love of wine and moonlight. It is said he drowned trying to embrace the reflection of the moon on the water. Order the Chinese Mai Tai. Stop at one, trust me. Years ago patrons played Liar’s Dice at the bar. It was loud and fun. I haven’t the nerve to ask if they still do. Maybe you can try.
2:00 PM · Stay as long as you like · 916 Grant Ave · Opens daily at 2 PM · Cash only
That’s it for the tour. I hope you enjoy it!
This tour was created as a companion to the Wild Radish essay on the Great Star Theater. Please consider buying a ticket or donating at greatstartheater.org.
This is a reprint from my Substack.