Photo: I-Hotel 2006. Community activists, tenants and social justice organizations have ensured that San Francisco's International Hotel has risen again.

In preparation for my trip to China I took a few photos of our Asian American communities here in the SF/Oakland/San Jose Bay Area.

The other photos are of SF's and Oakland's Chinatowns, San Antonio and Fruitvale Districts.

With current gentrification and displacement struggles ongoing in SF's JapanTown, SOMA, Mission and Chinatown, I will get to see the parallel issues in cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

I found the Discovery/Times Canadian Broadcasting TV Documentary Series China Rises and the McNeil Lehrer reports fascinating.

By seeing some urban areas up close, I hope to better understand the contradictions and rapid changes going on in the political, cultural and economic lives of the Chinese people. I am curious too how I will perceived by my 'brothers and sisters' in China.