Kong Chow Temple, Taoist temple in Chinatown, San Francisco, United States

Kong Chow Temple occupies the upper floor of a building on Stockton Street and displays traditional Chinese architecture with elaborately decorated details. The rooms contain altars, statues of deities, and decorative elements that fill the interior with religious significance.

Founded in 1849 by Cantonese immigrants from the Siyi region, the temple became the Kong Chow Clan Association in 1854, providing welfare and religious services. Destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, it was rebuilt at 520 Pine near St. Mary's Square. In 1977 the temple moved to the Kong Chow Building on Stockton Street, where it remains.

The temple serves the local Chinese community as a place for prayers, memorial services, and traditional rituals that visitors can observe as part of everyday practice. The rooms are filled with offerings and incense, making the religious life of the community directly visible.

The temple sits in the Kong Chow Building on Stockton Street in Chinatown and is open daily from 8:30 to 16:00. The shrine is on an upper floor reached by stairs, so allow for that if stairs are difficult. Prayer sessions and Qing Ming Festival observances take place here, so visitors should keep quiet while worshippers are at the altar.

In 1948 Bess Truman shook a container of kau cim sticks at the temple's altar and drew a slip predicting her husband would win; the slip is kept there. Charlotte Ah Tye Chang, in her nineties, led 1968 and 1969 protests against demolishing the old temple, joined by her niece, artist Nanying Stella Wong.