Union Square

As you walk towards the Bay down California Street, Chinatown sits to your left. Take a right; instead, on Powell and within a few minutes you’ll be at Union Square. This small, one-block plaza’s name comes from the fact that rallies in support of the Union Army were held here in the years leading up to and during the Civil War, but today the area is most famous as the center of high-end shopping in San Francisco. You’ll find familiar national department store’s San Francisco locations—Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, and Nordstrom, for example—as well as boutiques from international brands including Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton. There are also some only in San Francisco stores worth seeking out. Gump’s has long been the city’s most famous luxury retailer and it continues that tradition at its Post Street location, where a giant Qing Dynasty gilded wood Buddha gazes down on the sales floor. The Xanadu Gallery on Maiden Lane specializes in Asian art and is notable as one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most important buildings in California. Here, he worked through many design concepts that would later appear in the Guggenheim in New York. Photo by Benson Kua/Flickr.