How does San Francisco represent California?

SF represents all of the following about California. Quick growth, liberal mindset, wine, diversity, great weather, natural beauty and love of art.

It represents the intellectual side of California in contrast to Los Angeles. It is #1 in tourist destinations. Ethnically it is Chinese and Latino where it used to be European, mainly Irish and Italian. Van Ness is different from one end to the other, from the Marina which is upscale to South Van Ness to the Mission District which is working class. San Francisco has always been a symbol of openness and tolerance for newcomers and all kinds of lifestyles, religions, ethnic groups that went against the grain in the old days. There has always been a pioneering spirit here since the 1800s and the Barbary Coast with its variety of people who were attracted to San Francisco because of the spirit individuality of San Franciscans.

"It could be anything from the different social class people on van ness, diversity of ethnic backgrounds, sunny weather"

San Francisco does NOT have sunny weather. It's known for its fog (im not kidding). San Francisco is actually a lot different from the rest of California. Its the weirdest "major" city of the US because it isn't the largest city in the Bay Area (the largest city in the Bay Area is actually San Jose). San Francisco's largest Asian ethnic group is Chinese, while the cities' of Los Angeles and San Diego is Filipino. San francisco is a coastal city, and people think of California, they think of beaches.

I will just share a couple of the ideas that came up, hopefully that helps.

- Angel island, the history of massive Chinese immigrants who were "jailed" until further notice. It was not until after the big earthquake that stroke SF's city hall and burned all the legal documents. Many Chinese immigrants were called "paper sons" because they were not directly related to the parents who helped them to the US.

- Alcatraz island, used to serve as a prison gated with the bay area water. There were histories about many prisoners trying to escape but were not successful due to the cold weather and sharks in the water.

- Fortune cookies, the factory is started and located in Chinatown's alley way in San Francisco. No one from China knew what it was... people mistaken it as a part of Chinese cookies, but indeed a creation of a Chinese American.

- The Fog, (weather), SF is known to have less sun but more fog. If you visit the Sunset district, which is closest to the beach, you will notice it is always foggy after night falls. Sometimes it gets really thick and people might mistaken it as rain sprinkling.

- Knob Hill, now called Nob hill... a little history about how the cable car was invented. Back then the buses can't even climb that deep of a hill. Cable car was created to grab onto a cable that runs underground all the way up the hill. Even though much of those hills were flattened now to accommodate the buses and cars, but you will still see some steep hills driving around Nob Hill or Russian Hill area.

Pride parade. The one they have in the summer every year.

When people think San Francisco, they think gay tolerance.