Step through the Dragon Gate and you're somewhere else entirely. San Francisco's Chinatown explodes with color, energy, and life unlike anywhere else in the city. Historic buildings burst with turquoise, red, and gold while pink lanterns swarm overhead. Crowds swirl through narrow streets past glowing pagodas and shop fronts, the air thick with a hundred conversations, the scent of dim sum, and the pulse of a neighborhood that's been the beating heart of Chinese America for over 150 years.