Looking for Chinatown? Take the tunnel!

Drugs! Sex! Scandal! The mob! Let me guess, you’re first thought is Little Italy, right? Wrong. Backtrack out of North Beach a little bit and you'll find yourself in Chinatown. What may seem like a friendly place with some of the best dim sum around has some darker tales to tell.

Photo taken by Jarek Piórkowski

Let me guess (again), you’re thinking illegal fireworks and other nifty back-of-the-store deals, right? Wrong. We’re talking even darker. That’s right! We’re talking about the Chinatown tunnels. You might be asking yourself, “What are you talking about?" Well, it’s time to stop guessing and start digging!

Chinatown has not always been a San Francisco destination; it’s been more commonly associated with being related to the stranger and to the darker side of the occult. So drinking herbal potions made of crushed rhino horn isn’t your cup of tea? Well, skip the green tea and keep on the look out for the real party place, an opium den.

You may not find a den today, but you may find the remnants of one by looking below your feet. Although there is no proof, rumor has it that there' s a wide system of tunnels below Chinatown that have been used for everything from opium dens to smuggling slave girls to mobsters escaping from the police! According to Dr. Weirde, the 1906 earthquake covered up most of these tunnels, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be found. Still think it’s a rumor?

The History Channel show Cities of the Underworld recently visited San Francisco, and one of the places they checked out were these exact tunnels. Recently, someone mentioned to me that even PG&E knows of their existence and even location, so maybe a little more digging will bring us deeper into the underbelly. Supposedly one of the entrances can be found in the Donaldina Cameron House, which housed its share of refugees from the slave trade in the past.

This video was found on YouTube. For the full clip, please visit the History Channel

If you want to try your luck before digging, how about a fortune cookie? If you're lucky, it'll lead you in the right direction.

I left my heart in San Francisco...and died

You’ve got your San Francisco checklist. You’ve marked off walking the Golden Gate Bridge, visiting Alcatraz, smelling the sea lions at Pier 39, and enjoying an espresso in North Beach. Whether you’re a local or a tourist, you feel like you’ve seen it all, done it all, and are ready to do it all over again. Well, you’re wrong.

That’s because what you may not realize is that the San Francisco Bay Area is home to surprising twists and turns almost anywhere you go. So if you’re ready to heighten your knowledge of the area to a whole new level, get rid of that fanny pack, put the visor away, and take a walk on the other side.

Our first destination is a tour that goes bump in the night. There are a lot of creepy things that come out when the sun goes down, and I’m not talking about the living. When darkness fills the sky, the dead come out to play. The San Francisco Ghost Hunt tour starts at 7:00 pm, but by that time, the ghosts are already awake. This tour is jam packed with ghosts, stories, and ghost stories, all about San Francisco’s spooky history.

The tour starts at the Queen Anne Hotel, which, as you’ve probably already guessed, is haunted! Jim, the tour guide dressed as if he were a ghost of the times, will greet you in a friendly manner, but once the tour begins, he’ll add a twist of fright to his friendly demeanor. You’ll have a chance to explore the hotel, and maybe even enter the most haunted room of them all (and no, it’s not 1408).

After you leave the hotel, make sure you have an ectoplasmic pack, because you’re about to go ghostbustin’. The tour takes you around the Pacific Heights district, stopping at several haunted locations. You’ll even have a chance to check out some of the oldest Victorian houses in San Francisco. Just make sure you keep your eyes peeled, because if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of the supernatural. Then again, maybe you’re lucky if you don’t.

This tour is not just about ghosts, but the history lesson of San Francisco that you didn’t learn in school. A lot of the stories explore the history and influence of women in the city, both in the flesh…and not. Not a block goes by without Jim telling you a story that makes you check over your shoulder, just in case. Jim also has some twists up his sleeves that will make you think twice before calling Bloody Mary in front of the mirror again.

At this point, you might be thinking that all of this is a joke. Well, go ahead and stick to walking the Golden Gate a couple hundred more times. But my group has photographic proof that this tour is alive even after death.

The next time you encounter a ghost, who you gonna call? Not me, that’s for sure.