Locke, California
I recently revisited a town called Locke with my mom. The last time we were there was many years ago when I was about 10 years old. Nothing has changed except my perspective. Everything looks so much more miniaturized than I remembered. But one thing remained the same, it still looks like a western movie set on a hollywood lot - with a twist: all the stores bare Chinese names and calligraphic signs.
Located 75 miles from San Francisco, in the Sacramento river Delta, Locke is the only remaining authentic Chinese village in the United States of America. Although many cities in America have a Chinatown, Locke is the only separate Chinese community that was built by, and exclusively for, Chinese immigrants. The town was founded in 1915 by a group of merchants on land owned by George Locke after a fire in the neighboring town of Walnut Grove destroyed the city's Chinatown. The town's development finished in 1920 and much of it remains the same to this day. At one time, 600 residents, all of whom were Chinese, lived in this three square block community. Now the permanent population of the town is less than 100, and less than a dozen of the residents are Chinese.
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