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If you want to spend a day exploring Angel Island, you will need to catch a ferry boat from Tiburon, San Francisco, or Vallejo. The trip from Tiburon is about 20 minutes. The scenic views of Marin County, San Francisco, and Angel Island, plus the fresh ocean breezes, are wonderful.  |
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 Definitely
plan to wear comfortable hiking shoes, because after you dock,
you will be hiking for about a mile - uphill most of the way! |
| You will want to stop often during your hike to the Immigration Station to admire the view and catch your breath. |
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| One of the first buildings you will see as you approach the Immigration Station is the school house. |
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| The good news is that the hike from the school house to the main immigration building is downhill! |
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Depending on how many other groups are touring the main building, you may have to wait awhile for a guide. But don't worry, you will have lots to look at while you wait. Although Angel Island does not have an Immigrant Wall of Fame, it does have a marble slab in honor of those who passed through the immigration station. |
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 If you are lucky, your
guide will be Dale Chang, who was actually detained on Angel
Island in 1937. He was returning from a trip to China and looking
forward to seeing his father, who was a US citizen. Although
Dale had broken no laws, he was held on Angel Island for two
months simply because he was Chinese. He has many first-hand
experiences to share with visitors |
 Men and women
were assigned to separate barracks. Boys twelve and older were
separated from their mothers. It is hard to imagine that 100
Chinese women had to share this tiny space. The bunk beds are
three beds high. |
 Time
passed very slowly at the Immigration Station. There was little
to do. Gold Mountain (San Francisco) must have seemed so near,
yet so far to the Chinese being held on Angel Island. |
| To pass the time away and to document their sorrow, many Chinese carved poetry into the walls of the barracks. |
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| For many Chinese, the worst part of their imprisonment were the interrogation sessions. They were asked incredibly detailed, yet trivial questions, such as "how many windows were there in your house in China?" |
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| If your answers did not match the answers given by your relatives (and recorded by the secretary), you would begin the interrogation process all over again - or maybe be sent back to China. |
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| It is hard to imagine that a place so rich in natural beauty as Angel Island served as a prison to the hundreds of Chinese immigrants who came to Gold Mountain seeking a better life. |
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Many
visitors to Angel Island, even those who grew up in California,
never knew about the Angel Island chapter of our nation's history.
The trip home is an opportunity to share with others what you
have learned during your visit.