San Francisco. Library of Congress 8 of 45 Chinatown in San Francisco, California. In early California, the major hubs would be the seaport of San Francisco and the soon-to-be capital, Sacramento. Nevertheless, many white workers were threatened by them, and anti-Chinese sentiment drove a large portion of them into one San Francisco neighborhood: Chinatown. This transformed San Francisco from a quiet city to one full of saloons and gambling houses.