Join your guide at Chinatown's Dragon Gate to explore two of San Francisco’s oldest and most culture-rich neighborhoods – North Beach and Chinatown. Hear the stories that feature free-lovism, Chinatown’s madams, and the Beat movement on this casual walk around the neighborhoods while seeing some of the famous local watering holes, art spaces, and places of great rebellion that still stand today. Only the adventurous – those who wanted to forge their own path and weren’t burdened by cultural norms – went west. This anything goes, be-what-you-want-to-be spirit is the thing that shaped San Francisco, and we'll immerse ourselves in it on this ~1.5 mile mostly flat walk.
See the stunning architecture and artistic details on Chinatown’s Waverly Place – full of former business places of SF’s madams and early temples plagued by gang wars. Stand in the art-ladden Jack Kerouac Alley that today is still home to cutting edge arts. Experience the notorious watering holes like Vesuvio where Beats wrote and smoked and wrote and drank and wrote. See the controversial club where Carol Doda changed the world.