Dragon Gate - Chinatown's Front Door

Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on San Francisco, District by District, a free self-guided tour.

Chinatown's south entrance at Grant Avenue and Bush Street is newer than it looks. A 1967 design competition was open only to architects of Chinese descent, and the winning design by Clayton Lee, with landscape architects Melvin Lee and Joseph Yee, was dedicated in 1970. The Republic of China on Taiwan donated the roof tiles, the carved dragons and the stone guardian lions.

The center sign carries four characters, a motto associated with Sun Yat-sen that is usually translated as all under heaven is for the good of the people. The side gates name virtues such as filial piety, integrity and peace.

Walk through and you trade the Financial District's towers for Grant Avenue, one of the oldest streets in the city. As Calle de la Fundacion and then Dupont Street, it was the main street of Yerba Buena before Chinatown grew up around it.

More on Wikipedia: Dragon Gate · Grant Avenue · Sun Yat-sen

Stops on this tour

1. Ferry Building and the Embarcadero - Where the City Met the World
   • The Grand Nave - A Ferry Terminal Reborn
   • Harry Bridges Plaza - The Freeway That Fell
   • Steuart and Mission - Bloody Thursday
   • Rincon Annex - Murals That Reached Congress
2. Financial District and Jackson Square - Gold Rush on the Old Shoreline
   • Clay and Sansome - The Ship Under the Street
   • Transamerica Pyramid - The Site of Halleck's Folly
   • Jackson Square - The Brick Survivors
   • Pacific Avenue - The Barbary Coast
3. Chinatown - The Neighborhood That Refused to Move
   • Dragon Gate - Chinatown's Front Door
   • Old St. Mary's - The Clock With a Warning
   • Chinese Historical Society - Julia Morgan's YWCA
   • Waverly Place - The Street of Temples
   • Portsmouth Square - Where the City Began
4. North Beach and Telegraph Hill - Little Italy and the Beats
   • Columbus Tower - The Green Flatiron
   • City Lights - The Howl Trial
   • Saints Peter and Paul - Washington Square's Spires
   • Coit Tower - Murals on the Hilltop
   • Filbert Steps - Gardens on the Cliff
5. Fisherman's Wharf - Italian Boats and Old Ships
   • Hyde Street Pier - Where Cars Took the Ferry
   • Aquatic Park Bathhouse - A Building Shaped Like a Ship
   • Ghirardelli Square - A Factory Saved
6. Nob Hill and Russian Hill - Cable Cars, Mansions and the Great Fire
   • Fairmont Hotel - Rebuilt by Julia Morgan
   • Flood Mansion - The Survivor in Brownstone
   • Grace Cathedral - On the Crocker Ruins
   • Cable Car Museum - The Working Powerhouse
   • Lombard Street - Russian Hill's Eight Turns
7. The Presidio - Two Centuries Guarding the Golden Gate
   • Officers' Club - Adobe Inside the Walls
   • Building 640 - The Secret Language School
   • Crissy Field - From World's Fair to Airfield to Marsh
   • Fort Point - The Fort Under the Bridge
8. Japantown and the Fillmore - Two Communities, One Neighborhood
   • Peace Plaza - Built on Redevelopment
   • Buchanan Mall - Ruth Asawa's Fountains
   • Kinmon Gakuen - The Line on Bush Street
   • Bop City - The House That Moved
   • The Fillmore - From Dance Hall to Rock Palace
9. Haight-Ashbury - From Victorian Suburb to Summer of Love
   • The Panhandle - Free Food and Free Concerts
   • 710 Ashbury - The Grateful Dead House
   • Haight Ashbury Free Clinic - Care Without Questions
   • Hippie Hill - The Park's Gathering Place
10. Golden Gate Park - Sand Dunes Turned Into a Park
    • Conservatory of Flowers - A Glass House From a Kit
    • Music Concourse - The 1894 World's Fair
    • Japanese Tea Garden - The Hagiwara Family's Garden
11. The Castro - A Neighborhood That Became a Movement
    • Pink Triangle Park - A Memorial in Granite
    • Castro Theatre - The Neighborhood's Movie Palace
    • Castro and 18th - The Honor Walk and the Crossroads
    • Castro Camera - Harvey Milk's Storefront
12. The Mission - Where San Francisco Began
    • Mission Dolores Chapel - Adobe From 1791
    • The Golden Fire Hydrant - The Hydrant That Saved the Mission
    • The Women's Building - MaestraPeace
    • Clarion Alley - A Gallery Without Walls
    • Balmy Alley - Murals of the Americas
13. Civic Center - Domes, Charters and Protest
    • City Hall - Under the Golden Dome
    • War Memorial - Where the UN Charter Was Signed
    • Civic Auditorium - Built for the 1915 Fair
    • Asian Art Museum - The Old Main Library
    • 50 United Nations Plaza - The 504 Sit-In
14. South of Market - From Rincon Hill to the Tech Boom
    • The Old Mint - The Granite Lady
    • Yerba Buena Gardens - A Waterfall of Words
    • South Park - London Square to Dot-Com Hub
    • Salesforce Park - The City Above the Street