700 MONTGOMERY ST. Called the "Wall Street of the West." The West's financial hub. East side of block harbors one of the finest clusters of 1850s San Francisco buildings. Most gutted by 1906 fire but reconstructed as they had been.

FORMER COLUMBUS SAVINGS BANK, northeast corner of Montgomery and Washington. Fine Beaux Arts building with a rounded corner and Ionic engaged columns.

CANESSA BUILDING, 708 Montgomery. White glazed brick facade and four round windows along top.

GOLDEN ERA BUILDING, 732 Montgomery. Dates from 1850s. Home of the most substantial literary periodical published during the 1850s and 1860s. Mark Twain and Bret Harte were two of its celebrated contributors. A look through the window shows the timber interiors of these old structures.

BANK OF LUCAS, TURNER AND CO., 804 Montgomery, northeast corner of Jackson. Top story removed after 1906 earthquake. Branch bank was managed by Wm. Tecumseh Sherman who resigned his army commission in 1853 but who later became the Union general who led the march through Georgia during the Civil War. Web site

JACKSON SQUARE HISTORIC DISTRICT. San Francisco's first historic district in 1972. 1850 brick structures. Wholesale furniture showrooms. Seventeen buildings have landmark status.

SOLARI BUILDING WEST, 472 Jackson. One of the oldest commercial buildings in the city and dates from 1850-52. Second story still has original wrought-iron shutters.

SOLARI BUILDING EAST, 470 Jackson. Built in 1852. Housed consulates.

MOULINIE BUILDING, 458-460 Jackson. Built in early 1850s and same family has owned it ever since. Stone obelisk in recessed vestibule echoed the shape of the Transamerica Pyramid to south.

PRESIDIO AND FERRIES RAILROAD BARN (1891), 440-444 Jackson. Stabled horses that drew cars on one of San Francisco's earliest public transit lines.

YEON BUILDING, 432 Jackson, corner of Balance St. Built after 1906 earthquake. Has five arches along first floor.

408 JACKSON ST. Built in 1953. Shows how modern designs can fit in with historic buildings.

GROGAN-LENT-ATHERTON BUILDING, 400 Jackson. Built in 1859. Rebuilt after 1906 earthquake.

407 JACKSON ST. Built in 1860. Used by the Ghiradelli Co. as an annex for the manufacture of chocolate.

GHIRADELLI CHOCOLATE FACTORY, 415-431 Jackson. Domenica Ghiradelli moved both his growing business as well as his family here in 1857. Moved to Ghiradellia Square in 1894.

441 JACKSON ST. Built in 1861 over hulls of two ships abandoned during Gold Rush. Cast iron pilasters are ornamented with caducei, the staff with entwined serpents that is both the emblem of Mercury , the god of commerce, and the medical profession.

445 JACKSON ST. Built in 1860. Has original cast iron shutters on ground floor and elaborate frames around second-floor windows.

451 JACKSON ST. Former A.P. Hotaling and Co., whikey distillery. Building retains iron shutters installed in 1866 to "fireproof" the house which did not burn in 1906.

OLD TRANSAMERICA BUILDING (1911), 701 Montgomery St. (on gore of Columbus). White terra-cotta-clad flatiron building.

TRANSAMERICA PYRAMID, 600 Montgomery, at end of Columbus. Public viewing area on 27th floor. 853 feet, tallest office building. Site cost $8 million, building $35 million. Art exhibits in lobby. Redwood park along east side of building.

BANK OF SAN FRANCISCO, 552 Montgomery at Clay. Built in 1908. Opulent banking hall with elaborate old teller cages. Web site

BANK OF CANTON OF CALIFORNIA, 555 Montgomery. Banking hall has coffered ceiling, four-panel mural. Elevator lobby produces echo when speaking. Web site

PACIFIC HERITAGE MUSEUM, 608 Commercial St. at Montgomery. Displays carry broad theme of the history of artistic, cultural, economic, and other interchanges between peoples on both sides of the Pacific.

CHINESE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 650 Commercial, near Sacramento. Traces history of Chinese immigrants and their contributions to the state's rail, mining, and fishing industries. Web site

VIEW EAST DOWN COMMERCIAL ST. At foot of Commercial on the Embarcadero are towers of Union Ferry Depot. Built in 1895-1903, modeled after cathedral in Seville. Light-colored, high-rise slabs are part of $300 million Embarcadero complex sometimes called Rockefeller Center West.

569 COMMERCIAL ST. Old Pacific Gas and Electric Station J, built in 1914 with large cartouche over entrance.

COMMERCIAL AND LEISDESDORFF. Narrow alley of Leisdesdorf (LIE-des-dorf) St. has surviving post-1906 buildings. Where Leisdesdorff crosses Commercial, view corridors penetrate four distinct parts of San Francisco.

VIEW WEST UP COMMERCIAL ST. At end are buildings on Chinatown's Grant Ave. and one of city's last brick-paved streets.

VIEW NORTH UP LEIDESDORFF.Beyond the side of the pyramid is the east slope of Telegraph Hill.

VIEW SOUTH DOWN LEIDESDORFF. Looks into the heart of the Financial District.

OLD BANK OF AMERICA HEADQUARTERS (1908), 552 Montgomery. Decorative marble, plaster, and metalwork inside are superb examples of high-quality, turn-of-the-century craftsmanship. Bronze tellers' cages, custom-made wall fixtures. Photomurals against back wall (also visible through side door on Clay St.). Bronze plaque on Montgomery corner marks spot where Capt. John B. Montgomery landed on July 9, 1846, to claim California for the U.S.

456 MONTGOMERY, on southeast corner at Sacramento. Twenty-four-story high-rise perched atop two small historic bank temples.

WELLS FARGO BANK HISTORY ROOM, 420 Montgomery. Displays samples of gold nuggets and gold dust, mural-sized map of the Mother Lode, original art, Concord stagecoach.

WELLS FARGO BANK HEADQUARTERS, 454 California. Oldest bank in west dates back to 1852.

BANK OF CALIFORNIA, 400 California St. Grandest banking temple in a city noted for its banking temples. Surrounded on three sides by great windows and Corinthian columns. Great banking hall with 60-foot-high ceilings. Carved mountain lions guard vault.

MUSEUM OF THE MONEY OF THE AMERICAN WEST, in basement. Collection dates back to 1850. Gold coins, Nevada's Comstocksilver lode.

UNION BANK, 370 California, northeast corner of Sansome. At side entrance, a row of walrus heads. Bank was agency of Yokohama Specie Bank in 1886, now owned by Bank of Tokyo.

VIEW FROM CALIFORNIA AND SANSOME. View of Southern Pacific Building, headquarters of the railroad of the West. First transcontinental railroad.

FIRST INTERSTATE CENTER/MANDARIN HOTEL, 345 California. Third tallest office building, cost $225 million. Preserves four corner vintage office buildings. Eleven-story luxury hotel in twin towers with sky bridges.

TADICH GRILL, 240 California, between Battery and Front. Oldest restaurant in California. Agreeably plain interior unchanged since the 1920s. Web site

GREAT WESTERN BUILDING, 425 California St. Black-glass-clad, 26-story, bay-windowed high-rise.

MERCHANTS EXCHANGE (1905), 465 California, corner of Leidesdorff. At the very heart of San Francisco's business core. All major transportation systems visually converge here.

GRANGE EXCHANGE HALL, entrance at end of lobby. Originally the center of commercial life on the West Coast. Large paintings:

Port Costa. View through Silver Gate where the American and Sacramento Rivers enter San Franciso Bay.
Honolulu Harbor. Honolulu when it was a small seaport nestled at the base of green volcanoes.
Arrived, All Well. Sailing ship enters the Golden Gate at sunset through late-afternoon fog.
Full and By. Ship rides a stormy sea carrying a cargo of redwood for San Francisco.
War Time. Shipbuilding at Hunter's Point in south San Francisco during World War I. Launching of a freighter. Airplane flies overhead.
Northest Passage. First ship to make the long-sought Northwest Passage. Vessel plunges through Arctic swells off a bleak coast.

SECURITY PACIFIC BANK (1918/1941), 300 Mongomery St. Hall modeled after a Roman basilica. Plaster bulls and bears decorate the hall's friezes.

KOHL BUILDING, 400 Montgomery. Built in 1901. Early "fireproof" steel frame structure survived earthquake and fire of 1906.

BANK OF AMERICA, 555 California St. Fifty-two story polished red granite complex. Interiors display impressive original art. Web site

A.P. GIANNINI PLAZA, on California St. Black swedish granite sculpture, Transcendence. (San Franciscans have dubbed it the "banker's heart.")

HISTORY EXHIBIT, on mezzanine level. Office machines, photographic history.

CARNELIAN ROOM, top of the tower. Finest view in the city, restaurant.

580 CALIFORNIA ST., northeast corner of Kearny. Hideous statues crown this office building.

PORTSMOUTH SQUARE (Clay and Kearny). Potato patch became plaza for Yerba Buena. Montgomery raised the American flag in 1846. Bronze galleon atop nine-foot granite shaft erected in 1919 in memory of Robert Louis Stevenson. In the morning, park is crowded with people performing solemn t'ai chi rituals.

CHINESE CULTURAL FOUNDATION GALLERY, Holiday Inn, 750 Kearny, third floor. Exhibits of Chinese-American artists. Traveling exhibits of Chinese culture. Saturday walking tours. Web site

BUDDHA'S UNIVERSAL CHURCH, 720 Washington. Five-story, hand-built temple decorated with murals and tile mosaics.

MOW FUNG COMPANY, 733 Washington. Original shop front, dating from 1912.

SILVER RESTAURANT, 737-39 Washington. 1906 building was Arata Hotel remodeled with stainless steel shows no understanding of the value of vintage architecture.

OLD CHINESE TELEPHONE EXCHANGE/BANK OF CANTON, 743 Washington. Original Chinatown burned down after the 1906 earthquake. This is the first building to set the style for the new Chinatown built in 1909.

GRANT AVE. Unique street lamps created in mid-1920s. Two dragons uphold the lantern-like lamps.

SANG WO COMPANY, southeast corner of Washington and Grant. Black and orange tiles from 1940s withstand removal of traditional wall posters.

CITICORP SAVINGS, 845 Grant. Chinese-style building has well-proportioned gatelike facade, gold-glazed roof tiles, and guardian lions.

QUANT SANG CHONG & CO., 32 Wentworth. One of Chinatown's oldest businesses. Displays exotic imports such as sharks' fins.

SHOPPING ON GRANT AVE., northern end below Broadway. Products from People's Republic. Chinese markets. Dragon-entwined lamposts, pagoda roofs, street signs with Chinese calligraphy.

PING YEUN HOUSING PROJECT, Pacific Ave. at Grant. Balconied buildings of pale green concrete built between 1950 and 1961 by the city. Some of the best housing in Chinatown with low crime and turnover rates.

EMPEROR HERBAL RESTAURANT, 626 Grant, across Broadway. First herbal restaurant in the U.S. features "dietotherapeutic" meals.

MURALS OF SAN FRANCISCO SCENES, Broadway at Columbus, northwest corner. Four-story building with large murals showing city scenes and musicians.

ROSS ALLEY. Clusters of small jewelry stores at either end.

GOLDEN GATE FORTUNE COOKIE COMPANY, 23 Ross Alley. Cookies come out of a machine. Also home of French adult fortune cookies.

SAM BO TRADING COMPANY, 14 Ross Alley. Universe of Chinese religious goods. Statues, banners, lanterns, hangings, plaques, scrolls, small shrines, and Buddhas.

CHEE KUNG TONG, 36 Spofford St. Secret society organized about 1853. Sun Yat Sen stayed here.

CHINESE LAUNDRY ASSOCIATION, 33 Spofford St. In 1888, some 3,000 Chinese laundrymen were at work in the city. Tong sought to protect Chinese from discriminatory municipal taxation and to regularize competition.

MURALS, west side of Spofford on St. Mary's playground wall. Four fine murals depict Chinatown residents shopping.

STOCKTON STREET. Other main thoroughfare is the real heart of Chinatown. Excellent examples of Chinese architecture.

VIEW NORTH UP STOCKTON. Visible are masts of Balclutha of 1886, the C.A. Thayer of 1895, and wooded Angel Island.

U.S. POST OFFICE, 855 Stockton at Clay, ground floor. Houses some fine old gilded Chinese signs from old Post Office that faced Portsmouth Square.

CHINESE SIX COMPANIES, 843 Stockton. Curved roof tiles and elaborate cornices. Elaborate polychromed and ornamented headquarters of what was traditionally the most important institution in Chinatown.

CHINESE CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, 827-29 Stockton. Built as Chinese Christian Institute in 1914.

KUO MING TANG HEADQUARTERS, 830-48 Stockton. This political party has its roots in Dr. Sun Yat Sen's Republican movement of the early twentieth century which triumphed in 1911.

STOCKTON STREET TUNNEL, south up Stockton. City's first tunnel.

ST. MARY'S (CHINESE-AMERICAN) SCHOOL, 902 Stockton, northeast corner at Clay. Windows are always alive with seasonal classroom art projects.

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 925 Stockton. Founded in 1853. First church on this site in 1857. This neoclassical, typical 1907 post-fire building never ornamented with Chinoiserie.

METHODIST BOARD OF HOME MISSIONS BUILDING, 1001-11 Stockton at Washington, northwest corner. Cross-and-pagoda-capped church built in 1910. Congregation first organized in 1868.

CHINESE AMERICAN CITIZENS ALLIANCE, 1044 Stockton. Houses first civil rights organization founded by Chinese Americans in 1895.

APARTMENT BUILDING, Stockton and Pacific Ave. Folk art murals on the walls.

MEE MEE BAKERY, 1328 Stockton. How messages get into fortune cookies.

HIP SENG TUNG/UNIVERSAL CAFE, 824-26 Washington. 1910 Edwardian building remodeled with pagoda cornices.

CHAN, WOO, YUEN FAMILY ASSOCIATION, 834-40 Washington. Facade uses tile, marble, and glazed brick and is an outstanding example of San Francisco Chinoiserie.

GOLDEN DRAGON RESTAURANT, 823-33 Washington St., corner of Waverly. Plain post-fire brick building had cornice removed, ground floor covered in green ceramic tile, gold-colored windows inserted.

COMMERCIAL/RESIDENTIAL BUILDING (1906), 151-55 Waverly Pl. Brick facade stuccoed, scored, and painted to look like stone. Two shop fronts, one original, one modernized.

WONG GOW BUILDING (1906), 143-47 Waverly. Pale yellow, dark green, and gold color scheme present classic old Chinatown at its best. Note fold leaf characters on second-story window.

YICK KEUNG BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION and HOP SING TONG (1909), 137-41 Waverly. Octagonal mirrors affixed to railings intended to confuse any evil spirit wanting to invade the premises. Capped with pagoda cornice and flag pole.

YEE FUNG TOY FAMILY ASSOCIATION (1908), 131 Waverly. Original windows effectively painted with dark geen freames and red sash and doors.

TIN HOW TEMPLE/SUE HING ASSOCIATIONll (1911), 123-29 Waverly. Classic example of multiuse "layer-cake" of Chinatown. Temple dedicated to Goddess of Heaven.

CHING CHONG DONG BUILDING (1907), 117-19 Waverly. Handsome Edwardian red brick structure with yellow brick bands

NORRAS TEMPLE/LEE FAMILY ASSOCIATION (1907), 109-11 Waverly. Original windows, fine metal brackets, railings on balcony.

GEE FAMILY ASSOCIATION (1907), 101-05 Waverly. Most notable for neon-trimmed eentrance canopy and pagoda cornice.

ENG FAMILY BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION (1907), 53-65 Waverly, corner of Clay. One of very few bay-windowed buildings in Chinatown. Corner with neon-trimmed pagoda tops.

NING YUNG BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION (1907), 41-45 Waverly. Notable for fine sheet metal balustrade-parapet with large cartouche bearing legend "07."

WONG FAMILY BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION (1911), 37-39 Waverly. Parapet has a flag pole.

BINK KONG TONG/CHINESE MASONIC TEMPLE (1911), 29-35 Waverly. New ground floor of cheap stucco and weak aluminum windows clashed with fine original architecture. Note neon compass insignia identifying Masonic Temple.

FIRST CHINESE BAPTIST CHURCH (1908), 1-15 Waverly. Redclinker brick church serves Baptist congregation organized in 1880. Contemporary stained-glass window faces Sacramento St.

VIEW ALONG WAVERLY. East side of landmark row linedwith plain post-earthquake buildings. Some still have old wood and glass shop fronts painted traditional green.

CHINATOWN YMCA, 855 Sacramento at end of Waverly. Landmark row concluded by gate of YMCA. Building described as Chinese Classical in style. Web site

MURALS, on walls of playground. Depict Chinese pioneers, Pacific Island peoples, and Asian-Americans as modern scientists and professionals shown against San Francisco skyline.

GRANT AVENUE, from Clay to California. Middle section of Grant is heart of tourist Chinatown.

WOK SHOP, 718 Grant. Sells Chinese cooking equipment and cookbooks.

YING ON MERCHANT AND LABOR ASSOCIATION, 747-49 Grant. Elaborate building built in 1906 and made "Chinese" in 1920.

SOO YEUNG BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION (1906), 801-07 Grant. Highly-decorated building. Old-fashioned metal canopy over sidewalk preserves old western pattern nearly everywhere else in the city.

DICK-YOUNG APARTMENTS, 823 Grant. Approximate location of Wm. Richardson's adobe trading posst erected in 1835. First building on Yerba Buena Cove and birthplace of settlement that became city of San Francisco. Small bronze plaque to right of doorway.

FIDELITY SAVINGS, 845 Grant. Most extravagant modern Chinese-style building in Chinatown. Massive gold tile-roofed gate for its facade and two ferocious guardian dogs behind its iron fence.

COMMERCIAL ST. Block below Grant still paved in red brick, one of last such streets in city. Rebuilt after 1906 to look much like it had in late 1850s.

DUBOIS BUILDING, 746-48 Commercial. After 1906, Commercial St. was rebuilt and partially occupied by brothels. French Baroque building may have been built as a "fancy house."

ANNA GISELMAN BUILDING (1908), 681-83 Commercial. Shows how handsome ordinary post-fire building are.

VIEW BACK UP COMMERCIAL. Chinatown in foreground and Nob Hill beyond.

654-70 GRANT, southeast corner at Sacramento. Three-story Edwardian hotel lwith interesting window surround. One of the handsomest buildings of its type in the city.

LOWRY ESTATE BUILDING, northwest corner of Grant and Sacramento. Bank of America branch in modernized ground floor.

CHINESE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, 730 Sacramento. Has a loggia and pagoda cornice of historic significance since formation in 1908 signified healing of deep rifts inside Chinatown.

NAM HUE SCHOOL, 755-65 Sacramento. Front courtyard is an extravagant gesture in dense Chinatown. After-hours Chinese language school.

VIEW, 600 block of Grant on east side. Fine view of landmark pagoda-capped building at Grant and California.

FAR EAST RESTAURANT, 631 Grant. Most evocative "old Chinatown" interior. High-ceiling, dark wood wainscoting, curtained private booths, old electric chandeliers of phantasmagoic ornateness, murals.

CALIFORNIA AND GRANT. Cable car bisects Chinatown on way from financial district to Nob Hill. One spot every visitor will remember and every San Franciscan treastures.

OLD ST. MARY'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND RECTORY, 600 California. Served as the city's Catholic cathedral until 1891. Granite quarried in China was used in structure which was dedicated in 1854. Motto on church tower reads, "Son, observe the time and fly from evil." Burned in 1906, reconstructed in 1906 to look like the original. Web site

ST. MARY'S SQUARE, diagonally across from the church. Donation by the Catholic archbishop in 1912. View old St. Mary's down Quincy St. Landscaped roof of a parking garage. Chinese-style open work bronze screen commemorates "Americans of Chinese ancestry who gave their lives for America in World Wars I and II."

STATUE OF SUN YAT SEN, St. Mary's Square. Heroic stainless-steel and rose-colored granite Sun Yat Sen, founder of the Republic of China.

SING FAT BUILDING/SING CHONG BUILDING, 1908, California and Grant Sts. Sing Fat, southwest corner, built in 1908 and Sing Chong, northwest corner serve as another visual gate for Chinatown.

LOTUS GARDEN TEMPLE, 532 Grant Ave. (upstairs), inside Lotus Garden Restaurant. Food offerings line the altar. Photographs of deceased loved ones. Stained-glass roof.

TAI CHONG COMPANY, 506-10 Grant. Fine brick work on upper stories, old shopfront and interior on ground floor.

500 GRANT. One of few bay-windowed buildings in Chinatown.

GRANT AVENUE HOTEL, Grant and Pine, southwest corner. Meeting room at top has stained-glass windows including a picture of the Portals of the Past in Golden Gate Park.

VIEW DOWN PINE STREET. Matson Building on left capped by open tower. Old Pacific Gas and Electric headquarters on right distinguished by giant order capped with urns on upper floors.

KHC PLAZA, 445 Grant. Unfortunate fusion of facade of old Shanghai Low Nightclub of 1922 with brutally-ugly 1985 six-story addition.

CHINATOWN GATE, Grant and Bush. Green-tiled and dragon-crowned gate with triple portals. Grant Ave., the main thoroughfare, has been called the "Street of 25,000 Lanterns.:

400 GRANT. Built as Friedman Hotel and Mandarin Cafe in 1913 in a French Baroque style. Chinese-style top with small pagoda tower added in 1924.

GOETHE INSTITUTE, 530 Bush. German library and English- and German-language culture programs. Area favored by French immigrants and nicknamed Frenchmen's Hill. Web site

NOTRE DAME DES VICTOIRES, 556 Bush. Designed after a church in Lyon. Sixteenth-century Flemish tapestry of Christ at the Mount of Olives. Web site

Descend stairs at Bush and Stockton to Stockton Tunnel to connect with the 30 Stockton trolley bus which goes south to Union Square