The city of San Francisco on the coast north of Los Angeles isnearly as large as Los Angeles. It might have been larger, but not so manyyears ago a terrible earthquake shook down the city. The quake only lasted afew minutes, but in that few minutes it rocked the city, cracked open theground, and knocked down buildings as if they were houses of children’s blocks,and hundreds and hundreds of people were killed. But the worst thing theearthquake did was to upset stoves and lamps that started one of the worstfires ever known—fires that burned up most of the city. Were the peoplediscouraged? Not at all. They collected their insurance money—and they builtthe city up again.

San Francisco has one of the finest harbors in the World. Its harboris a long bay—fifty miles long. Ships enter the harbor from the Pacific Oceanthrough an opening called the Golden Gate. The city is built on many hills sosteep that it is difficult for automobiles to climb them, but houses built onthem have lovely views of the ocean, the bay, or the Golden Gate. Across theGolden Gate is a huge suspension bridge much bigger than the Brooklyn Bridge.

Ships enter and leave San Francisco for all the countries on andacross the Pacific Ocean. Across the Pacific Ocean are China and Japan, and indays gone by so many Chinese came to the United States and landed in SanFrancisco that there is a part of the city called Chinatown, where there areChinese houses and shops and theaters. Many Japanese too came to the United Statesfrom Japan, and bought farms where they raised fruits and vegetables.