旧金山评为全美最好的旅游城市

The cable car -- one of the most prominent symbols of San Francisco, rolls up and down the city’s steep, hilly streets. With its twists and turns, Lombard Street is known as the most crooked in the world. Fisherman’s Wharf entices visitors with the smell of seafood, while the Golden Gate Bridge glows across the San Francisco Bay. The compact 78-kilometer square city is easy to get around with its environmentally friendly transportation. Victorian homes from the late 1800’s provide a backdrop for modern downtown buildings.

San Francisco was well known in the 1960s as a gathering place for hippies -- a term used to describe some nonconformist, rebellious youth. Many say the spirit of that movement still remains here, including Deborah Reinow with San Francisco’s Visitors Bureau. “There’s a free spirit here, there is a freedom, a tolerance, a place where you can be yourself.” San Francisco has many culturally diverse neighborhoods where various languages are spoken.

Totra Rayamajhi from Nepal works in a small convenience store. He came to the city two years ago and says, “I like very much this area, this place, San Francisco. It’s very good.” Sohel Subedar was born in India. He owns a restaurant that serves both Indian and Pakistani food. “San Francisco is an amazing place because it’s such a huge melting pot of so many different diverse cultures – you know, a lot of Hispanics, you know, African-Americans, you have a good-sized Arab community, a lot of obvious Chinese-Americans, and there’s a good camaraderie among diverse ethnicities.”

The largest ethnic population is Chinese-American. They are scattered throughout the city, but 9,000 of them live in Chinatown, a popular tourist area. April Yee is a third generation Chinese-American native of San Francisco. “There are just people all the time on all the streets, hustling and bustling about, carrying grocery bags. And I guess, right now it seems like there is an older population in Chinatown.”

But that appears to be changing. Twenty-three-year-old Marissa Louie recently moved to Chinatown. She grew up in the suburbs. But after graduating from college, she decided she wanted to live in Chinatown. “So I moved into the city, back into the same house where my mother grew up in actually, and so I'm kind of putting my roots down here again in the city,” she said.

Stephan Pryshlak, from Ukraine, has been in San Francisco for eight years and works in a hotel. Even though the Ukrainian population is small, it gives him a feeling of home. “You can stay, work here and you still have not lost your communication with your country.” Palestinian Bashir Shahin manages this Moroccan restaurant. He spins a drink on this magic tray, as he calls it, and doesn’t spill a drop. “I like it because there are so many cultures around, so I feel I could blend in.” But he says there is one drawback to San Francisco -- he has to work hard since it is one of the most expensive cities in the United States.

旧金山市最显眼的象征之一有轨公车在市区陡峭的街道上下穿行。曲折拐弯的隆巴德街恐怕是世界上最弯曲的街道了。渔民码头则以其海鲜的味道吸引着游人。旧金山湾上的金门桥当然就更不用说了。旧金山不留污染的公共交通系统在这个78平方公里的城市里四通八达。市中心的现代高楼和十九世纪后期修建的维多利亚式房屋同时并存。

在60年代，旧金山是一个标新立异的叛逆青年、也就是“嬉皮士”喜欢聚集的地方。许多人说，那种标新立异的叛逆精神仍然在这里，旧金山市旅游处的莱诺就是这样认为的。莱诺说：“这儿有一种自由精神，这里有自由有宽容，是一个你能自得其所的地方。”旧金山有很多不同文化的人聚居的区域，在那里他们说自己的语言。

拉亚马兹来自尼泊尔，在一个小便利店工作。他是两年前来到旧金山的。他说：“我很喜欢旧金山这个地方，这里很好。”苏贝达尔出生在印度。他在旧金山开了一家印度和巴基斯坦餐厅。他说：“旧金山是个很奇妙的地方，因为这里文化多样，是一个大熔炉。这里有很多拉美人、很多美国黑人、有不少阿拉伯人、当然还有很多华裔，不同种族的人之间关系很好。”

旧金山最大的少数民族人口是华裔美国人。他们分散在全市，但是光是游客必到的唐人街就有9千人。一位姓余的小姐是第三代中国移民，是旧金山土生土长的。她说：“这儿就是特别热闹，所有的街上都是买食品的人。现在看来，唐人街的人口好像在老化。”

但是这种情况看来正在变化。23岁的马丽莎最近搬到了唐人街。她在郊区长大，但是大学毕业后，她决定住到唐人街上。她说：“所以我搬进了城里，搬回到了我母亲长大的房子里，所以我又在把自己的根挪回到城里。”

普雷什拉克来自乌克兰，已经在旧金山生活了8年，在一个酒店工作。这里的乌克兰人口虽然不多，但他还是有在家的感觉。他说：“你可以在这儿住下来，在这儿工作，但是你还是和自己的国家保持着联系。”巴勒斯坦人沙赫因管理着一家摩洛哥餐厅。他说：“我喜欢这里，因为这儿有这么多的文化，我觉得自己可以融入进去。”但是他说，旧金山有一个缺点，那就是，在这里他必须加倍工作，因为这里是美国生活最昂贵的城市之一。