HotelTonight – Chinatown San Francisco Hotels in a Few Swipes
San Francisco is all at once a big city and a grouping of totally unique communities. This is a place where you could travel for all of a mile or two and wind up in a place that's completely different than the one you just left. That's why I've made it sort of a hobby of mine to take a day whenever possible to explore a neighborhood in San Francisco I've never really gotten to experience. I recently had to travel there for a work meeting, and instead of booking my return flight for the morning after my last discussion I booked it for 24 hours later. I wanted to see Chinatown, as I had only driven through it once before and didn't even stop because I was working. I wasn't worried about accommodations, either, as I always travel with my HotelTonight app. It would help me find a Chinatown San Francisco hotel immediately when the need arose.
Not All Tourists
Most people, when they hear that you're going to Chinatown in San Francisco, assume you're going to be spending your time doing touristy things. While that's certainly an option, I found out that this is not just a tourist center. There are community associations here and an actual neighborhood of people who live here even if they don't work here. There's a "local" side to Chinatown, and it basically exists off of the main tourist streets. I walked around a bit along some of these side streets, amazed at the rich history of this part of town, which dates back to the 19th Century.
The Food
Yes, Chinatown is known for its Chinese food, and yes, it seems like a cliche, but once again, there are almost two separate scenes here in that there is the touristy part of the community that serves what seems to be more "Americanized" Chinese food and then there is what the locals enjoy. The restaurants off the beaten path a bit are more likely to be the "real deal" places, and that's what I wanted for lunch. I found a place where the menus were only in Chinese, and with the help of my friendly server I had Chinese food that was unlike anything I had ever tasted. The noodles were so flavorful I kept looking at them to see what they did to make them taste that way.
The Music
I never would have thought of Chinatown in San Francisco as a place for unique music, but that's definitely a part of the fiber of this community. As I walked around that night, I popped into a few different places that were playing different styles of music from different countries in Asia. In one place, I heard K-pop, or popular Korean music, while in the next I heard more of a traditional Chinese sound. It was an amazing experience to hear all of this.
HotelTonight – Chinatown San Francisco Hotels at the Ready
After such a great day, I finally realized that I was exhausted. It was time to find my Chinatown San Francisco hotel room on my HotelTonight app. I opened the app, searched for something and had a room within seconds. I looked forward to a long and relaxing night of sleep.
