Ross Alley

North Beach & Chinatown


Colorful murals hint at the colorful characters who once roamed SF’s oldest alleyway – known during the Gold Rush variously as Mexico, Spanish or Manila St, after the women who staffed its back-parlor brothels. More recently Ross Alley has been pimped out as the picturesque backdrop for action movies like The Karate Kid, Part II and Big Trouble in Little China. Find inspiration at the Chinese Culture Center's contemporary art gallery (No 41), then seek your fortune at Golden Gate Fortune Cookie.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby North Beach & Chinatown attractions

1. Chinatown Alleyways

0.03 MILES

If you look close today at the clinker-brick buildings lining these narrow backstreets, past the temple balconies jutting out over bakeries, acupuncture…

2. Spofford Alley

0.06 MILES

Sun Yat-sen once plotted the overthrow of China’s last dynasty here at number 36, and during Prohibition, this was the site of turf battles over local…

3. Chinese Telephone Exchange

0.07 MILES

California's earliest high-tech adopters weren't 1970s Silicon Valley programmers – they were Chinatown switchboard operators c 1894. To connect callers,…

4. Wentworth Place

0.07 MILES

Dragons bring this shadowy brick byway roaring to life. The narrow entryway is illuminated with 'Dragon Boats Chasing Moonlight,' a new mosaic mural…

5. Waverly Place

0.08 MILES

Grant Ave is Chinatown's economic heart, but its soul is Waverly Place, lined with flag-festooned, colorful temple balconies and family-run businesses…

6. Tin How Temple

0.08 MILES

There was no place to go but up in Chinatown in the 19th century, when laws restricted where Chinese San Franciscans could live and work. Atop barber…

7. Portsmouth Square

0.12 MILES

Chinatown's unofficial living room is named after John B Montgomery's sloop, which staked the US claim on San Francisco in 1846. SF's first city hall…

8. Chinese Culture Center

0.14 MILES

You can see all the way to China from the Hilton's 3rd floor inside this cultural center, which hosts exhibits ranging from showcases of contemporary…