Last Full Day in San Francisco

Today is our last full day in San Francisco. We did a walking tour with Free Tours By Foot, a company that operates in many other cities. We did one in New Orleans a number of years ago. It was a three hour tour called “The Original San Francisco.” We walked through Chinatown, Little Italy and the Financial District. We learned how the Gold Rush of 1894 caused the city to be built in a hurry. Men from all across the US, Canada, Russia, Europe and China arrived to seek their fortune. Chinese represent approximately 23% of San Francisco’s population today. We learned how 80% of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires. The firefighters were tasked to save important structures, so some churches, saloons and taverns were saved, especially in the Italian section. Bruce Lee was born in the hospital in San Francisco’s China Town. We walked through a “factory” that makes fortune cookies, and got to sample a fresh cookie before it was folded into shape by hand around the fortune paper. The statue commemorating the American victory in the Spanish/American war is of a young woman holding a trident. A wreath was placed in her other hand to honour US president William McKinley after he was assassinated in 1901, the year it was erected.Read more