San Diego Chinese Historical Museum — Attraction in San Diego

I love learning about local history and my ancestral history so visiting this museum was a chance to do both. It's very small but worth a visit. The collection is lovingly curated, the building itself has history, the stories of local Chinese San Diegans are preserved here, and so is the memory of the Chinatown that once existed here. As such, my favorite items were the diorama models depicting scenes from early Chinese San Diego.

The museum is a grassroots effort and it's obvious from some aspects including the size and presentation—I saw some typos on signage, some of the signage had faded lettering or font that was too small to read, and there's room to improve the physical arrangement of objects in the museum. There's a small garden at the back of the museum but I think it could also be improved with some landscaping and redesign. As is, it appeared both underutilized and haphazard to me, and I was kinda disappointed as I expected a more Zen-inducing meditation garden vibe.

The staff were nice, but no one explained anything to me and I'm not sure if that's because I didn't explicitly ask? It was a little disappointing because I would have liked the professional insight, but I still enjoyed the exhibits and I wish I can come back to town someday in time to catch a...

Had this place on my to go list while my son was visiting as he loves anything Asian. Bonus for having a military discount on the admission fee. As other reviewers commented, the staff are extremely helpful and will give you a tour explaining the history and the exhibits. We even got to hold a pair of foot binding shoes from their collection. It's not a large building, and with the tour, it probably took us an hour to see everything.

The museum also has an exhibit hall across the street that seems to stay locked. Staff escorts guests over and unlocks the door as needed. Dragon boat races are currently featured, though it's reading about and seeing video of a race rather than seeing the various boats themselves. I don't know why I expected more, but I was underwhelmed, though that's more of a reflection on me rather than the museum. If you're in the area...

I still can’t believe there used to be a Chinatown here in San Diego! I wanted to explore this museum but, according to their website, they’ve been closed due to the pandemic. Hopefully, they will open up again soon! So much to learn and make sure that some history doesn’t repeat itself. PS there were lots of reasons why San Diego’s Chinatown vanished but it mostly had to do with “cleaning up” the slums in San Diego to get ready for the San Diego Exposition (world fair) in 1915. A San Diego writer for VoicesofSanDiego.org says, “officials had ordered 99 buildings in Chinatown” to be torn down and that San Diego’s Chinatown after that dwindled down after WWII. Imagine… our San Diego Convention Center’s location was...