During the 1895 San Francisco Fair at Golden Gate Park, hooligan Fong Ching (Little Pete), a city-slicker, police dupe, and stool pigeon, became involved with international kidnapping of Chinese girls from Hong Kong and China to dance at the Park's events.

The Arizona Suey Ying Tong men wanted to use the assassination of Little Pete as an unspoken warning to San Francisco's rogue police. Lennie heard from her Father, Chow Chong, that the Suey Ying Tong were involved.

The Northwest corner of San Francisco has one of the most scenic beaches in California, if not the world: China Beach.

How this lovely place got that name is a bit of a mystery.

The National Parks Service website states there’s no evidence the Chinese camped there. Historian Eva Ma reported that Chinese Junks were seen anchored there from time to time but with no evidence of fishing. Some speculated that they were pirates.

Not only was operating a laundry considered a respectable business in Chinatown but the

*Yee Sang Goon Mo","Laundryman's Wife," was classified as the "See How Paw", "Bosswoman". More ambitious laundryman, Yee Sang Goon Bok," were known to select helpmates who could help them build up their business and home-life, somewhat like the pioneer homestead farmers did.

While living in San Francisco, part of Stevenson’s daily routine was to visit Portsmouth Square. Chow Chong, who was a teenager at the time, met Stevenson in the square and in a twist, regaled the writer with tales of his family’s seafaring adventures.

The Clan befriended him and even took him around to see nearby sights, including the infamous Barbary Coast. Although Stevenson was sickly, he enjoyed the bawdy scenes and wrote about them.

In 1901, the exchange expanded to a 3 story building at 743 Washington Street, but unfortunately, the building was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. A new building was built at the same location with a new design that was very ornate.

After the earthquake, city officials sought to move Chinatown to a less desirable location. However, a number of intrepid individuals were able to keep the same location by changing the architecture of new buildings to make Chinatown an exotic-looking location that would attract tourists.

The story of Louie Wee Lee, Lucretia’s grandfather, was a classic example of the importance of merchant status. He was the founder of a store known as Shing Chong (pronounced “sing charn”).

"Optimo Five Cent Cigars"

by Lennie Lee

During World War II, when Grandfather Jing Loy Lee and I were young and on a tight budget, we sometimes took slow reminiscing strolls along Commercial Street, from Front to Sansome, once known as the Chinese "Yin Hong,"

There was no mattress on the bed. They were lying on grass mats laid over the wooden planks. Several rectangular-shaped white porcelain blocks served as their pillows. The small room had no closet and only one window that faced the lightwell.

Two beautiful young Chinese girls dressed in embroidered brocades were sitting among the four men, laughing and lighting their opium pipes for them. The men appeared sleepy and were dressed in drab,gray, rumpled clothing. The men's leathery brown skin over their sunken jaws made a strong contrast to the heavily made-up round, cheek girls.

After more than four decades of all-out cooperative endeavors by honest police, churches, local schools, family associations, and women vigilantes to unshackle the underworld’s vice-hold of ‘White 88 Slavers,‘ ’white slavery ’in Chinatown was at last largely eliminated during the 1930s.

Chinatown female shelter houses, such as Gum Moon on Washington Street and Cameron House, were already quiet places with just a few Chinese ladies, girls, and several elderly white women living there. One of the elderly white women use to give me piano lessons; I asked her why she was living at Cameron House.