What I Did on My Summer Vacation - Part 3, Chinatown

San Francisco's Chinatown is the second largest in the US ( New York is the first) and perhaps the most well-known. It's a neighborhood filled with Chinese shops, restaurants, schools and home to to many of the 120,000 Chinese residents of the Bay area. They live in close quarters, multi-generational families, sharing an apartment and working at various local businesses. The kids attend Chinese school in the afternoon, learning culture and language, long after their regular school day ends.

The neighborhood is colorful, exotic and bustling. It's alive with the sound of various Chinese dialects and busy with Chinese of all ages shopping and socializing.

For a nine year old from Maine, it's just plain fascinating.

We took a walking tour with the lovely Linda Lee of All About Chinatown Tours. Linda grew up in Chinatown and has been leading tours for 26 years. She's full of information and lots of fun.

After a brief history of Chinatown, Linda got down important business - the food.

First stop was a tiny fortune cookie factory, located down a narrow pedestrian alley. Three Chinese women sat at workplaces, quickly grabbing hot, flat cookies from a belt, stuffing them with fortunes and folding the cookies before they could cool.

My daughter got a real kick out if it, especially when the owner (manager?) gave the group a big bagful of flat cookies to snack on. As the youngest member of the tour, Linda insisted that she carry the bag and frequently offer cookies to everyone.

Next stop was the food markets. We saw many things that were easily recognizable as food...

And some that weren't...

Linda also took us to a Chinese herbal pharmacy, where there were many weird and wonderful remedies for whatever ails you.

Dried lizard for your headache?

Hey, you never know.

And we had the privilege of visiting a Buddhist temple. Our timing was perfect, as a trio of Buddhist nuns arrived to chant noon prayers. It was magical to watch...

Of course the tour stirred up our appetite for Chinese food.

Linda recommended the House of Nanking for lunch.

And I can heartily recommend Linda Lee, for a great way to see more of San Francisco's Chinatown than the average tourist.