In the historic Chinatown District of San Luis Obispo, Chinese pioneers faced prejudice and exclusionary laws but made major contributions to local commerce, agriculture, and industry. Chinatown reached its peak in the late 19th century, covering portions of three city blocks as the largest Chinese settlement in San Luis Obispo County. At its center was the Ah Louis Store, surrounded by shops, restaurants, living quarters for Chinese merchants and their families, and boarding houses for Chinese laborers. The imagery associated with this history includes the Ah Louis Store, thousands of laborers who built railroads and roads connecting San Luis Obispo with San Francisco and Los Angeles, a boat bringing Chinese immigrants to the new country, Yin and Yang symbolizing life forces in harmony with nature, and a dragon symbolizing long life. The Chinese characters for “Love” and “Double Joy,” linked by a dragon, symbolize the duality of the immigrants’ experience: love for the land of their birth and joy in their hopes in a new land, a message presented as still relevant to Chinese immigrants today.