Hop Louie is supposed to be a famous one. There were lots of restaurants, too, but they were all closed. But again, I wonder how this place looks at night with all that neon lit up? I bet in the summer it made it even hotter since there was so much to turn on. And the architecture was fun to photograph. I really loved how colorful everything was.
![foo chow restaurant rush hour foo chow restaurant rush hour](https://img.restaurantguru.com/c93d-Restaurant-Foo-Chow-Restaurant-photo.jpg)
There were a few, like the Fortune Teller, but we were not going to have our fortunes read that day. They really added a pop of bright color.Īnd it was hard to compete and stand out with all the colorful buildings and the interesting architecture.Īnother thing we didn’t know about Chinatown was that many of the shops were not open early on Saturday mornings. One thing I really loved were all the red paper lanterns everywhere. You can just imagine what this looked like all lit up at night! This gate had quite a bit more wear and tear. We just all seemed to remember how this area has been portrayed on film and it was a little different from what we expected.Īnd on the opposite side of the Plaza was another gate behind the statue of Dr. Really, most everything was in good condition and still very much what you would expect to see in a tourist spot. Of course, that is just an assumption on my part. It probably had been a while since Hollywood came in and glammed everything up. The sign could have used some paint in a few places. But even though nothing was lit up while we were there, everything was still bright and colorful.Īnd there was some fixing up that needed to happen here and there. And at night, I bet this place really is something to see. Which at the time this area was built was probably a big novelty. And you can see here what I mean about style. It was several blocks down from where we were and we were with Keith’s parents and were not prepared to walk that far.īut we did get to see one of the more iconic signs that was the entrance to Central Plaza.
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They kind of stand out a little better in this shot looking to Downtown LA. Your can barely see the golden dragons arching over the road a few streetlights down from Central Plaza, where we mainly visited. We came in a back way to the district and totally missed the main entrance on North Broadway. And since it was built in the late thirties and early forties, it reflects a lot of that era with its décor and theme. So, while it is old, it is not as old as some Chinatown Districts, like the one in San Francisco. New Chinatown as it is called is really a neighborhood outside of Downtown LA that was moved from its original location to where it is now when Union Station was built in 1938.
![foo chow restaurant rush hour foo chow restaurant rush hour](http://www.threelittlekittens.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Foo-Chow-Restaurant.jpg)
And, we also didn’t realize how Hollywood really can do a makeover on a location to make it look different from the way it really is. We really didn’t know anything about Chinatown, except what we had seen in the movies. None of us had really ever been before, so we did not know what to expect. It was June, so we decided to head down early in the morning to avoid the heat. She knew it would be a great place for me to take pictures and for us to explore. Keith’s sister Janice thought this would be a neat place to go for a day trip. I always tell everyone that I see more of California now when we visit family on vacation than I did when I lived there! This was my first visit to Chinatown. We hit a lot of places on that trip and one of those was a visit to the Chinatown District in Los Angeles, California.
![foo chow restaurant rush hour foo chow restaurant rush hour](https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/600x600/1362735_ySS8BK3rSXOUJ5pjMZjGqlc9c9OunYORRaInzrh0I1A.jpg)
Last week I mentioned that I had been working on some photographs from our 2014 West Coast vacation.