July 2003 - Around San Francisco

Tote and I have visited Chinatown a few times. We took this picture because this woman is wearing a hat like the one Duncan currently likes.
San Francisco's Chinatown is said to be the largest Chinese community outside of Asia and has the highest population density of any neighborhood the city.
; sSan Francisco seems more Hong Kong than Beijing, because it's crowded and busy. There is, of course, a constant crush of tourists.
The "boundaries" of Chinatown have expanded since the '80s when I first visited San Francisco. (I've been told by people I've chatted with at bus stops and at the Academy of Sciences that there is also a substantial Chinese community in the Richmond district, north of Golden Gate Park.) It now pushes into North Beach and up Russian Hill.
At the same time, some of the shops along the main street are no longer run by Chinese. The electronics stores in particular. There's even a falafel shop on the main street.