First Impressions of San Francisco (1 of 3)
Photos taken by a repatriating expat the first month back (post 1 of 3)
It’s been one year since I moved to San Francisco from Shanghai, China. I looked back at the photos I took during my first month in the USA to see what impressions I had of the city on the bay. Here’s what caught my eye when I first explored my new home.
View the following parts:
Part 1: Iconic City on the Bay
San Francisco is famous around the world. Its geography is unique, its climate bizarre, and many of its sights are iconic emblems of the city.
Probably the most recognizable image of San Francisco is the Golden Gate Bridge. It marks the entrance to the bay from the Pacific Ocean and connects the city to the northern suburbs in Marin County, famous for the Redwood forest. This photo was taken from Land’s End park, in the northwest corner of the city.
Another classic image of San Francisco is pastel houses, sloping along a hill. This street is in the Richmond district, next to the ocean.
Most people recognize the San Francisco cable cars that carry tourists over the hills from downtown to the bay. This is one of the historic fleet of street cars that run along Market Street and skirt the city along the Embarcadero. They were donated by cities around the world. My favorite is the Philadelphia #1055 car which also still runs along Girard Ave in my former neighborhood, Fishtown.
Another iconic image of San Francisco: Castro, the gay neighborhood. Rainbows are everywhere along Castro Street.
The other bridge in San Francisco—the Bay Bridge—is not nearly as famous as the Golden Gate but is so much longer and lights up at night. It connects Oakland in the East Bay to the San Francisco peninsula.
The bridges are the lifelines for the city, as you can see by the number of cars driving over the Golden Gate Bridge here. On the left side of this photo is the island of Alcatraz, the infamous former prison.
California is car country. Highway 101 cuts across the city from the Golden Gate Bridge, also picking up traffic from the Bay Bridge heading south towards Silicon Valley. If these 8 lanes weren’t enough, there’s a parallel highway just 1 mile away.
Fog and palm trees—only in San Francisco. The tall structure in the background is Sutro Tower, a nearly 1,000 foot antenna that sits on top of a hill next to Twin Peaks. I use it as a reference point all over the city.
California is famous for its beaches. The waves roll in for ages and you can walk along the beach for miles. This is Ocean Beach, viewed from the Cliff House at the Northwest corner of San Francisco.
Ocean Beach is the biggest beach I’ve ever seen. But it’s nothing like the beaches on the East Coast or in Australia that many people are used to. The sand is dark and coarse, there is a lot of debris, and the water is frigid. It’s great for long walks, not so much for swimming and sun bathing. The building on the right is Cliff House, a famous restaurant with excellent views of the sunset. The hills in the distance are Marin County.
Almost every afternoon the wind picks up. Typical wind speed is 15mph (25kph). It’s a great place for paragliding, hang gliding, and wind and kite surfing.
San Francisco has a lot of small parks and “open spaces.” This is the Mission District’s Dolores Park in the morning with the fog still hovering over the bay behind the city skyline.
In the afternoon when the fog lifts and temperatures rise, Dolores Park is a popular place to sit outside. This photo was taken from the J Church street car.
> Continue reading Part 2: Many Cultures, One City