-San Francisco, open your Golden Gate, sang the girl in the theatre. She never finished her song. The date was 18th April, 1906. The earth shook and the roof suddenly divided, buildings crashed to the ground and people rushed out into the streets. The dreadful earthquake destroyed the city that had grown up when men discovered gold in the deserts of California. But today the streets of San Francisco stretch over more than forty steep hills, rising like huge cliffs above the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The best way to see this splendid city, where Spanish people were the first to make their homes, is to take one of the old cable cars which run along the nine main avenues. Fares are cheap; they have not risen, I'm told, for almost a hundred years.
You leave the palm trees in Union Square --- the heart of San Francisco --- and from the shop signs and the faces around you, you will notice that in the city live people from many nations --- Austrians, Italians,Chinese and others --- giving each part a special character. More Chinese live in China Town than in any other part of the world outside China. Here, with Chinese restaurants, Chinese post-boxes, and even odd telephone-boxes that look like pagodas, it is easy to feel you are in China itself.
Fisherman's Wharf, a place all foreigners want to see, is at the end of the ride. You get out, pause perhaps to help the other travellers to swing the cable car on its turntable (a city custom), and then set out to find a table in one of the gay little restaurants beside the harbour. As you enjoy the fresh Pacific sea food you can admire the bright red paint of the Golden Gate Bridge in the harbour and watch the traffic crossing beneath the tall towers on its way to the pretty village of Tiberon. When you've finished your meal, you may decide to take aboat-trip around the bay to look at the sights. You can stare, for example, at the famous, now empty, prison of Alcatraz. Then why not go to the fishing village of Sansalito --- a little like London's Chelsea or New York's Greenwich Village --- to see people painting and to look at their pictures. You will be able to enjoy a view of the city from the sea and take pleasure in the soft red and blue Spanish-type houses shining in the bright Pacific light. If you have time you might like to go by bus to Carmel, a hundred miles south of San Francisco, where you will discover a wild and wonderful coast with high cliffs.
Although the people of San Francisco prefer riding to walking, you may like to climb up the steep streets. Handrails are provided so that you can pull yourself up. You can enjoy the splendid shops, the view from Telegraph Hill, the houses with fountains and garden: You can also look at the Stage Coach, a familiar sight from Western films, which is in the window of the Wells Fargo Bank in Montgomery Street, near the business centre of the city.
I expect you'll notice that all over the city the cars are left with their wheels turned towards the side walk so that they can't roll away. Wherever you walk you'll find it hard to lose yourself. At most of the important crossings there is a plan of the streets (Lombard Street; Ohio Street; Market Street; and so on)cut into the stone of the sidewalk so that you can look down and see where you are.
After so much walking you may feel tired and sticky and ready for a swim. There is often a thick morning mist from the sea in summer, but the weather can be very hot. Yet nobody swims in the Pacific. It is too risky. There are miles and miles of smooth hard sand, empty because of sharks --- those dreadful big man-eating fish --- and the high and dangerous waves of the sea. So take a street car from the city centre to the wonderful swimming pool on the edge of the ocean. Afterwards you can go to the neighbouring zoo.Later, while you wait to catch a street car returning to your hotel, you may even see the sign “Doggy Diner” --- a restaurant for dogs!
But what about meals for people? As in most of the big cities, the restaurants offer delicious food from almost every country. You could have dinner in Chinatown and then, on the way back to your hotel, catch the last cable car after midnight: it's not unusual for passengers who arrive late to have to hang on to the sides of the last car for the whole journey.
On Sundays parents often take their children to look at the strange trees in the pretty Japanese Tea Garden in the huge spaces of Golden Gate Park.
With its hot sun and gay night life, San Francisco is a fine place to live in or to visit. It is the most European of all American cities and you'll be sure to grow fond of it instantly. So tell yourself in the words of a song from the last century, “San Francisco, here I come!”
“旧金山，敞开你的金门吧!”剧院里的那位歌女演唱道。她没有唱完她的歌。这一天是1906年4月18日，大地震动，屋顶突然分裂，高楼大厦轰然坍倒，人们纷纷从屋里逃出，冲上街头。在加利福尼亚州沙漠里发现金矿后成长起来的这座城市，就这样被可怕的地震摧毁了。但时至今日，旧金山的街道四处延伸；遍布四十多座陡峭的小山，那些小山像悬崖峭壁般高耸于太平洋蓝色的海域之上。
要游览这座西班牙人最早在此落户的灿烂的城市，最好的办法是乘坐穿越九条主要大街的旧式缆车。缆车取费低廉，据说近百年来一直没涨过价。
联合广场是旧金山的中心，如果你离开广场的棕榈树，你就会根据店铺的招牌和周围人们的脸庞，注意到这座城市里居住着来自许多国家的人——奥地利人、意大利人、中国人和其他国家的人——这就使每一地段呈现出各自的特色。有许多中国人住在唐人街，其人数比中国本土之外世界其他任何地方的华人都多。这里有中国风味的餐馆、中国式的邮筒，甚至还有形如宝塔的奇异的电话亭。这种情况使你很容易感到仿佛是置身于中国境内了。
国外游客都想访问一下缆车的终点站——渔民之埠。车抵终点站，你下车后，也可能会暂时停步，遵照当地的风俗，帮助其他游客推动转车台上的缆车，使之掉头转向，然后移步到码头旁边的一家装饰华丽的小饭馆里找一个座位坐下。当你品尝太平洋的海鲜时，你可以观赏海港里漆着鲜红颜色的金门大桥，观看林立的高塔下通往美丽的村庄“蒂伯龙”的交通线上络绎不绝的车辆。餐后，你可能决定乘坐游艇绕着海湾观赏风景。比如你可以凝视遐迩闻名但现已空无一人的阿尔卡特拉兹监狱。接着，你何不去游玩一下桑萨利托渔村呢?那里有点像伦敦的切尔西区，也有些象纽约的格林威治村。有些人在渔村里绘画，你不妨去看看，观赏一下他们的作品。那时你还可以从海上远眺市容，饱览在太平洋上明媚的阳光照耀下闪闪发光的色调柔和、红蓝色的西班牙式房屋。如果有时间，你也许还想坐公共汽车前往旧金山以南一百英里的卡梅尔。在那里你会发现一片峭壁高耸、荒凉但引人入胜的海岸。
虽然旧金山人喜欢乘车代步，可是你也许会喜欢爬上坡度很大的街道。你可以抓住栏杆攀登，欣赏那些绚丽多彩的店铺，从电报山上眺望美景，饱览带有喷泉和花园的住宅。你还可以去看看陈列在韦尔斯法戈银行橱窗里的、在西部电影里常见的驿站马车，这家银行座落在靠近城市商业中心的蒙哥马利大街。
我想你会注意到，全市的汽车在停靠时为了防止滑动，车轮总是向着人行道的。还有，你无论走到哪里，都不容易迷路。在大多数的主要交叉路口，都有一幅街道(朗巴德街、俄亥俄街、市场街等等)的详图刻在人行道的石头上。只要你低头看一下，就知道自己所在的位置了。
长时间走动之后，你可能感到疲倦，很不舒服，想要游泳。这里的夏季清晨，海上往往吹来浓雾，但气候可能十分炎热。然而，谁也不敢在太平洋里游泳。那样太危险了。海边有连绵许多英里长的平坦坚硬的沙滩，渺无人迹，因为那里有吃人的凶猛可怕的大鲨鱼，还有海上卷起的汹涌巨浪。所以你还是从中心乘电车到太平洋岸边出色的游泳池去吧。嗣后，你可以逛一下附近的动物园。接着，在你等候电车回旅舍的时候，还可能会看到“狗饭店”的招牌——一家专门为狗服务的餐馆!?
可是供应旅客的饭菜是什么呢?这里的餐馆和大多数大城市的餐馆一样，几乎世界各国的美味佳肴应有尽有。你不妨在唐人街就餐，饭后赶午夜以后的末班缆车返回旅舍，晚到的乘客常常不得不抓着末班缆车的车侧走完全程。
每逢星期天，家长们往往带着孩子去参观金门公园占很大面积的美丽的日本茶场，观赏茶场里那些稀奇古怪的树木。
旧金山白天骄阳当空，夜生活热闹繁华，是个适宜于居住和旅游的好地方。它是美国所有城市中最富欧洲色彩的一个城市，你肯定是会很快就喜爱它的。因此请你默念十九世纪一首歌曲中这样的词句吧：“旧金山，我到你的身边来了!” |