If you are in Chinatown and paying attention to restaurants, stores, and such, you may find many of them with mini shrines of Guan Yu similar to this: A typical Guan Yu shrine you may find in Chinatown all over Guan Yu was a real person that lives in the Three Kingdoms period of China, and due to his unerring sense of honor (and in the end, died for it), he became venerated for his various virtues, such as total honesty, martial prowess, brotherhood, and later, extended to other virtues such as justice, business integrity, and fortune. In fact, Guan Yu was so popular, that after his death in the 3rd century, he was eventually adopted by both Taoist and Buddhist as a minor deity. And there are temples worshipping his all over Asia, including Japan, Korea, and various places of Chinese Diaspora. In fact, in the Qing Dynasty (the final one), Guan Yu was raised to the status of "Saint of War" and equal to that of Confucius (who's "Saint of Culture") Guan Yu is also
An exploration of San Francisco Chinatown typically NOT covered by tours