The How of Tao
Grant Avenue is the tourist route through the city’s fabled Chinatown, but layers of ancient Asian culture are still hidden here in the smaller streets and alleyways. When Chinese immigrants first made the voyage to “Gold Mountain,” the Chinese name for California during the Gold Rush, one of their first missions was to thank the deity who guided them safely across the Pacific. The temple they built to honor the goddess Tin How (also known as Mazu) in 1852 is still in its original location, and is the oldest Taoist temple in America.
Tin How was a legendary woman of 9th-century coastal China. With her preternatural skills as a swimmer and sailor, she saved many a drowning seafarer, to become a sort of patron saint of those making sea voyages, and remains widely worshipped to this day.
Info
Address 125 Waverly Plaza, San Francisco, CA, 94108 | Public Transport Bus: 1 (Clay St & Stockton St stop) | Hours Daily 10am–4pm| Tip Tin How Temple has an easy-to-miss entrance at the street level, so keep your eyes peeled. On the way there, take time to explore the many colorful produce and live markets that line Stockton Street.
This knowledge may or may not help you sort out the hundreds of statues and images that await you at the top of three flights of very steep, creaky wooden steps in the Tin How Temple. Don’t worry that the door of the narrow building is unmarked or that there are no signs, or that the permanently grumpy person who may or may not be in the shrine room will almost certainly not speak English. This is a public space; people come here to pray, and as long as you are respectful and quiet you will be tolerated, though photos are strictly forbidden.
The elaborately carved red-and-gold shrine room glows with lantern light and candles, its air dense with clouds of incense. Red paper banners hang like stalactites from the ceiling, bearing the Chinese names of the many supplicants who come here to ask a blessing or a favor. It’s a good idea to leave a donation, for the goddess of your choice. And don’t miss the view of Waverly Place from the fire escape/terrace out front. From this angle, 19th-century China appears to be right before your eyes.
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