Chinatown
Chinatown is a common term used to describe an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, typically situated in an urban area.
Chinatown is a common term used to describe an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, typically situated in an urban area. Chinatowns can be found around the world, including in Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. The history of Chinatowns date back to the Tang dynasty in the 10th century, arising from the nation's important role in global trade.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Worth seeing in and around Chinatown
10 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.
- 01University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science.
5.7 km · public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California · Wikipedia - 02Transamerica Pyramid
The Transamerica Pyramid Center is a pyramid-shaped 48-story modernist skyscraper in San Francisco, California, United States, and the second tallest building in the San Francisco skyline. Located at 600 Montgomery Street between Clay and Washington Streets in the city's Financial District, it was the tallest building in San Francisco from its completion in 1972 until 2017.
500 m · distinctive tower in San Francisco, California, USA · Wikipedia - 03San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, commonly referred to as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 vehicles a day on its two decks.
5.9 km · suspension bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland, California, USA · Wikipedia - 04San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art, and has built an internationally recognized collection with over 33,000 works of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design, and media arts.
1.4 km · modern art museum in San Francisco, California, USA · Wikipedia - 05Oracle Park
Oracle Park is a ballpark in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. Since 2000, it has been the home of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball.
2.6 km · baseball stadium in San Francisco, California, USA · Wikipedia - 06University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1855, it has nearly 9,000 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in 59 major programs.
4.3 km · Jesuit Catholic university in San Francisco, California · Wikipedia - 07California Academy of Sciences
The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The academy began in 1853 as a learned society and still carries out a large amount of original research.
5.9 km · natural history museum in San Francisco · Wikipedia - 08M. H. de Young Memorial Museum
The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, United States, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young. Located on the West Side of the city in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the Legion of Honor.
6 km · fine arts museum located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park · Wikipedia - 09Chase Center
Chase Center is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. It is the home of the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association, Golden State Valkyries of the Women's National Basketball Association, and occasionally for the University of San Francisco men's and women's basketball teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
3.7 km · indoor arena in San Francisco, California, USA · Wikipedia - 10555 California Street
555 California Street, formerly Bank of America Center, is a 52-story 779 ft skyscraper in San Francisco, California. It is the fourth tallest building in the city as of February 2021, and in 2013 was the largest by floor area.
700 m · skyscraper · Wikipedia
Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Getting to Chinatown
- Airports
- Oakland San Francisco Bay (OAK), 19 km · San Francisco (SFO), 20 km · Mineta San Jose (SJC), 64 km
- Stations
- San Francisco Ferry Building, 1.3 km
- San Jose → Chinatown4920 km · quickest by air, 13h 37m · $830–1,270
- Sacramento → Chinatown118 km · quickest by road, 2h 37m · $11–15
- Fresno → Chinatown261 km · quickest by road, 4h 38m · $24–33
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Chinatown
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Chinatown. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get inEach of the three Cable Car lines pass through Chinatown.
- Get inStation you can catch the Powell-Mason or the Powell-Hyde cable car line at Powell and Market.
- Get inTo reach Chinatown's famous Grant Avenue via the cable car, exit BART or the MUNI Metro at the Embarcadero Station and catch the California cable car line at California and Market.
- Get inOf course, if you'd rather avoid the long lines and crowded trip that a cable car ride entails, there are several good MUNI bus lines that serve the area.
From Wikivoyage: San Francisco/Chinatown-North Beach, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.
- 011,148 km
- 021,228 km
- 031,270 km
- 041,294 km
- 051,338 km
If you know how people move in Chinatown – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Chinatown
Chinatown is 3 km from San Francisco, the nearest large city, whose note carries the wider picture.
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- Haight-Ashburydistrict of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets4.5 km
- South of Marketneighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States2.2 km
- Compton's Cafeteria riotpro transgender protest in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco1.5 km
- Union Squareneighborhood in San Francisco1 km