This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

If you're walking in San Francisco, you might not know when you're crossing from the western

addition neighborhood into Hayes Valley, or if you're in Portola or Excelsior, but you

could be aimlessly wandering around any western city of significant size, including San

Francisco or Oakland, and you'll know exactly when you're in Chinatown. Those visual cues

may be simple to pick up on, but it turns out the origin stories of Chinatown and the

architecture and food that come from it are far more complex and interesting than you

can imagine. We did a couple stories on this a few years ago and we compiled them together

into this episode. I hope you like it.

In 1968, George Soys stepped off a plane from Hong Kong and into the San Francisco International

Airport. It was his first time on American soil. At 22 years old, he had left his homeland

of China and traveled across the ocean to build a new life for himself and his young

life in this land of opportunity.

When immigrants first come to the US and this is such an old trope and an old story that

you expect, you know, the streets are paved with gold.

This is Bonnie Soys, George's daughter. She's also the author of a book about American Chinatowns.

In today, like Chinese people still call San Francisco Gumsan, meaning gold mountain.

This is where you find your fortune in San Francisco.

George Soys very first stop in San Francisco. His very first stop in America, like a generation

upon generation of Chinese immigrants before him, was San Francisco's Chinatown.

And he was not impressed.

To George, San Francisco's Chinatown felt out of date.

...