Every year Chinatown attracts hordes of tourists, but to the San Franciscans who see it everyday, the neighborhood is more than just a moneymaker, it is a means survival, as it has been for decades.

“Everything we need is here in Chinatown,” Sarah Choi said fondly of the “old days.” “Everybody stayed in side their district; we don’t run around all over.”

Choi is an 81-year-old Chinatown native and still remembers how Chinatown was when she was a kid.

“When I was growing up, my grandfather didn’t want my grandmother to go shopping outside,” said Choi, whose parents emigrated from mainland China and settled in Chinatown.

More than 100 years ago, Chinatown started out as a haven for immigrants, a starting point before assimilating to American culture. Although it is still a port of entry for many new immigrants, Chinatown has grown into a completely self-sufficient neighborhood.

Groceries can be bought “anywhere on Stockton,” said Choi, referring to Stockton Street, which is lined with markets filled with fresh produces, fish, meats, and dry goods.

In this small neighborhood, which is bordered roughly by Powell Street, Kearny Street, North Beach and the Financial District, there are also hair salons, herbalists, churches, florists, and a library. Stores line the street, where most kinds of apparel, houseware, decorative art, and entertainment products are available.

There is also an endless amount of bakeries and restaurants, and may be what Chinatown is best known for.

Jesse Yip, 81, a longtime friend of Choi’s, remembers how restaurants had food delivered to the customers during the Great Depression.

“They would bring it up on their heads,” she said, chuckling, remembering how the deliverymen would carry large baskets filled with food on their heads. “We would eat everything and then afterwards we would put the dirty dishes outside the door and they would pick it up. Very cheap.”

Yip’s family immigrated to New York before moving to San Francisco’s Chinatown. Both Yip and Choi have been volunteering at the Chinese Historical Society of America on Clay Street for the past four years. The two met in the sixth grade at Commodore Stockton when it was still a K-8 school.

“That’s a long time ago,” said Yip. “We haven’t fought each other yet.”

For some of the people who are accustomed to living in the small housing units of the neighborhood, any other lifestyle or area would seem foreign. They can function completely and survive with in those few blocks.

From the very beginning of one’s life, most vital necessities can be found in Chinatown – a hospital, schools, churches, and temples. When they pass away, their spirit can be accompanied by the music of the Green Street Mortuary Band, which sees hundreds of Chinese funerals each year.

But not everyone stays.

Jack Lee, 40, grew up hanging out in Chinatown. His family moved there from Hong Kong when he was 5 years old. After his family moved away from Chinatown, Lee lost his connection to Chinatown.

“But now I’ve come back to my roots,” he said.

Although he lives in the Sunset district now, Lee works at the Chinatown Playground as a recreational director. He sees plenty of kids growing up in the neighborhood.

“They come out here after school, because there’s nothing at home,” he said, recognizing that many parents have to work. For some who leave Chinatown, they find it much harder than expected because there is a lack of resources, he said.

Heng Luo, 18, goes to the playground everyday after classes to practice his basketball skills. He was on a team back home in mainland China.

“For us youth it’s easier to adapt,” he said in Cantonese. “For adults, it’s harder.”

Luo and his family have only been in Chinatown for four months, and he is taking English classes at the City College extension downtown. He does not think Chinatown is much different from his life back home.

Oliver Chan, 40, works with Lee and has been a recreational director at the playground for nine years.

“Most kids just like to hang out with their friends … chit chat,” he said.

Sometimes, after the playground closes, he sees them drinking, but he thinks it is harmless.

“At least they are not somewhere stealing, or cheating … they’re just hanging out,” he said. “The outside perspective is different; they don’t see what we see.”

Chan said it is actually a much safer Chinatown then when he was growing up. He moved there from Burma when he was 10 years old.

Larry Chan, 19, an SF State freshman studying kinesiology, has been going to the playground since the fifth grade.

He goes back to the playground to play basketball, but also enjoys volleyball or a game of tag. Chan is also apart of the Leung White Crane lion dancing group.

Recently, the murder of the group’s founder and community leader, Allen Leung, has created political tension within the community. The stir has brought the neighborhood into the spotlight, giving the rest of the city a glimpse of the well-cloaked world of Chinatown politics.

But the residents seem to remain unabashed. They continue with their lives in this tight-knit community – shopping for groceries, catching up with old friends, working, going to school, and just plain surviving.