Lawrence Tom

Sacramento's Chinatown Lawrence Tom

Sacramento's Chinatown has played a central role in the history of the Chinese in America since the Gold Rush. It was named Yee Fow (Second City) by the early Chinese pioneers because it was the second stop by steamboat on the way to the gold country. In the 1960s, Sacramento's Chinatown, one of the oldest Chinatowns in America, was largely torn down by redevelopment, but today Chinese Americans in the capital city are planning a Yee Fow Center for History, Culture, and Trade as they seek to remember the past and look to the future.