The first immigrants, mostly Cantonese, lived in a small community clustered around Portsmouth Square. This square, now the roof of a subterranean parking garage, was so named by Captain John Montgomery. Montgomery came ashore from the USS Portsmouth in 1846 and claimed the territory for the United States. In Portsmouth Square, Chinese men openly gamble over games of Chinese chess or Russian poker. Onlookers crowd around the cement gaming tables while the elderly sit nearby to nod in the sun.
Children dart here and there playing tag.
A monument to Robert Louis Stevenson, topped by a bronze galleon, stands in the northwest corner. Today the narrow streets of Chinatown are lined with equally narrow shops, with tiny altars tucked into wall niches where incense is burned for the gods. Jewelry shops gleam with 18 karat gold and sparkle with rubies, sapphires, opals, imperial jade carvings, miniature onyx musical instruments, massive mabe pearls and coral. Butchers pile pork rind and chicken feet in shallow pans and hang tea-smoked ducks, pork ribs and skinny sausages from suspended window racks. Excited shoppers cluster around wash tubs filled with fish struggling in the last throes of life.