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This morning the Street Cars are running, yippee, they've been on strike for 2 days. They are great fun and marvellous how they work on the cables. The drivers and brake men really have to know what they are doing. We went up from Fishermans Wharf to Union square on the street car then wandered through China town, (check out the photos in the San Fran Album). We loved the vibe in china town. On entering the district through the Dragon Gate, the Main Street is hung with red lanterns and lined with many souvenir type shops selling all sorts of Chinese style items:- silk purses, slippers, kimonos, pandas, jade ornaments, fans, chopsticks, lanterns to name a few. Then leading off are smaller streets with more produce shops, these were even more fascinating. Fruit and veg, some of which we had never seen before, Chinese medicine / herbal remedies , dried fish of all kinds, dried roots of all kinds, live fish in tanks and mountains of fortune cookies. Smells ranged from mouthwatering to revolting ( dried fish). (Various pictures of these things in the albums). It was a thoroughly entertaining place, although above the shops and in little alleys there are thousands of one room apartments housing whole families, it's a very poor area in general. Having said that it felt lively and safe to walk around. We were feeling hungry and saw a girl advertising a restaurant around the corner, praying for no food poisoning we decided to give it a go. There were lots of the local Chinese population in there which we took as a good sign and selected the special family meal for $13 each. For that we had vegetable spring rolls and dipping sauce, hot and sour soup, mu shu pork in pancakes, beef chow mein, sweet and sour pork and Kung pao chicken - phew, all washed down with tea and fortune cookies. It was a feast ! No ill effects so far. Tonight is Alcatraz tour - spooky !!!
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