The Dragon Gate is a south-facing gate at the intersection of Bush Street and Grant Avenue, marking a southern entrance to San Francisco's Chinatown, in the U.S. state of California. Built in 1969 as a gift from the Republic of China in the style of a traditional Chinese pailou, it became one of the most photographed locations in Chinatown, along with the older Sing Fat and Sing Chong buildings.
History
In 1953, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce sponsored a bilingual essay contest on how to improve Chinatown business, in the wake of an U.S. embargo on mainland China imports after the People's Republic of China entered the Korean conflict. The winner of the English division, Charles L. Leong, suggested in his essay, among many things, the erection of an authentic archway to Chinatown at Bush and Grant. A later report from 1963 proposing general plans for the downtown area noted that "north of Bush Street, Grant Avenue, to the casual observer and the visitor, is Chinatown", establishing the site's suitability. In 1956, the Chinatown Improvement Committee, appointed by Mayor George Christopher, made the archway its top priority, but further progress was stalled; an early effort to build a gate which started in 1958 was suspended in 1961 after funds and materials ran short, then abandoned in 1962. The gate was redesigned in 1963 by Lun Chan, Worley Wong, Morton Rader, and Piero Patri as part of a more ambitious plan to link Chinatown and North Beach via a pedestrian mall and bridge. In 1967 Mayor John F. Shelley, Mayor Christopher's successor, also championed the project and sponsored a design competition. This contest to design a gateway was won by a team of three Chinese-Americans, landscape architects Melvin H. Lee, Joseph Yee, along with architect Clayton Lee, who were inspired by Chinese village architecture of ceremonial gates. There were twenty entrants in the contest, judged by a jury of five. Materials for the gateway, viz., 120 artisanal ochre tiles, were donated by the Republic of China in 1969. Although the gateway was largely completed by April 1969, it was not dedicated until October 18, 1970; Mayor Joseph Alioto, Mayor Shelly's successor, and Vice-President Yen Chia-kan of the Republic of China attended the ceremony. The Dragon Gate, with its inscription by Sun Yat-sen, has been described as embodying "the ROC government symbolic claim on Chinatown", before the People's Republic of China gained more influence in Chinatown following Nixon's 1972 visit to China and further normalization of US-China relations.
Design
Like most Chinese ceremonial gates, the Chinatown Gateway has three portals facing south. The two smaller west and east portals flank the larger central portal, and the structure is supported on stone columns rising from the sidewalks on either side of Grant. The stone columns adhere to standards for Chinese gateways; in contrast, most 'Chinese' gateways constructed in the United States use wooden support columns. Each portal is covered with green tiles, leading north along Grant Avenue into Chinatown. Three shallow steps lead up to each pedestrian portal. Each pedestrian portal features a stone Chinese guardian lionon the side away from the street. By tradition, the lion pair consists of one male and one female. The male lion, at the west portal, stands with his right fore paw atop a pearl or stone, symbolically guarding the structure or empire. The female lion, at the east portal, stands with her left fore paw atop a juvenile lion, symbolically guarding the occupants within. There are also fish and dragons atop the gate; the fish symbolize prosperity, while the dragons symbolize power and fertility. Between the dragons is a ball, symbolizing the earth. There are four Chinese characters above each portal. Each sign is read from right to left. The central portal sign reads ; the east portal sign reads ; and the west reads.
